Efficient transferring of human experiences to robots and other autonomous machines

ABSTRACT

A mechanism is described for facilitating transferring of human experiences to autonomous machines. A method of embodiments, as described herein, includes facilitating sensing, by one or more sensors, one or more inputs relating to a user, and evaluating the one or more inputs to capture one or more behavior traits of the user. The method may further include training a neural network model based on the one or more behavior traits, and applying the trained neural network model to a computing device to facilitate the computing device to adopt the one or more behavior traits to behave as the user.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application is a U.S. National Phase application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/CN2016/111500, filed Dec. 22, 2016, entitled “EFFICIENT TRANSFERRING OF HUMAN EXPERIENCES TO ROBOTS AND OTHER AUTONOMOUS MACHINES”.

FIELD

Embodiments described herein generally relate to computers. More particularly, embodiments are described for facilitating efficient transferring of human experiences to robots and other autonomous machines.

BACKGROUND

Autonomous machines, such as robots, are known for performing complex tasks and being difficult to program using computer programming languages due to their complex environments. Conventional industrial robot programming techniques are limited to specific tasks and rely on experts to elaborate every corner case. For example, such conventional techniques do not apply to all robots; especially, when they are interacting with humans in open environments.

Further, today's robot designs allow for thousands of sensors on a robot; however, in the real-time stream of sensor inputs through these sensors, there is merely a small portion of the sensor inputs that are regarded as critical to the decision of reaction of the robot, which means how to identify this in a real-time manner becomes a “big data” challenges for such robots and other autonomous machines.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a processing system, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a processor having one or more processor cores, an integrated memory controller, and an integrated graphics processor.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a graphics processor, which may be a discrete graphics processing unit, or may be a graphics processor integrated with a plurality of processing cores.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a graphics processing engine of a graphics processor in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of another embodiment of a graphics processor.

FIG. 6 illustrates thread execution logic including an array of processing elements employed in some embodiments of a graphics processing engine.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a graphics processor instruction formats according to some embodiments.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of another embodiment of a graphics processor.

FIG. 9A is a block diagram illustrating a graphics processor command format according to an embodiment.

FIG. 9B is a block diagram illustrating a graphics processor command sequence according to an embodiment.

FIG. 10 illustrates exemplary graphics software architecture for a data processing system according to some embodiments.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an IP core development system that may be used to manufacture an integrated circuit to perform operations according to an embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system on a chip integrated circuit that may be fabricated using one or more IP cores, according to an embodiment,

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary graphics processor of a system on a chip integrated circuit that may be fabricated using one or more liP cores, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating an additional exemplary graphics processor of a system on a chip integrated circuit that may be fabricated using one or more IP cores, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 15 illustrates a computing device employing an experience transfer mechanism according to one embodiment.

FIG. 16A illustrates the experience transfer mechanism of FIG. 15 according to one embodiment.

FIG. 16B illustrates an architectural placement employing the experience transfer mechanism of FIG. 15 according to one embodiment.

FIG. 17 illustrates a conventional transaction sequence having a direct programming method for controlling robots according to one embodiment.

FIG. 18 illustrates a transaction sequence employing a robot control system with human-in-the-loop according to one embodiment.

FIG. 19 illustrates an autonomous machine-learning platform of human behavior interaction for transferring human interaction skills to the autonomous machine according to one embodiment.

FIG. 20 illustrates a neural network model according to one embodiment.

FIG. 21A illustrates a method for transferring experience from humans to autonomous machines according to one embodiment.

FIG. 21B illustrates a method for transferring experience from humans to autonomous machines according to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth. However, embodiments, as described herein, may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known circuits, structures and techniques have not been shown in details in order not to obscure the understanding of this description.

Embodiments provide for a novel technique for identifying critical data or knowledge and then to capture this data and transfer it to autonomous machines, such as robots, without having to explicitly program these autonomous machines. For example, in one embodiment, sensor inputs may be collected and planned with humans in-the-loop, while retaining neural network models with the collected information and applying these neural models in robot control.

Embodiments provide for a novel technique for integrating a wearable exoskeleton sensing sub-system with an expression capturing sub-system to sample any related information, where this integrated system may include multiple sensors connected by an exoskeleton and a sensor signal screening and storage system. Any relevant sensor information may be classified into two-fold, the input information for the actions planning along with the consequences generated by the actions. These sensor data are recorded in good format to reveal the planning policy.

Throughout this document, robots may be used as examples of autonomous machines, where in several cases, for brevity and clarity, terms like “robot”, “autonomous machine”, “computing device” may be used interchangeably. A neural network refers to artificial neural networks (ANNs), such as a CNN, that is inspired by and generally based on biological neural networks (BNN), such as central nervous systems in humans and animals.

It is contemplated that terms like “request”, “query”, “job”, “work”, “work item”, “workload” may be referenced interchangeably throughout this document. Similarly, an “application” or “agent” may refer to or include a computer program, a software application, a game, a workstation application, etc., offered through an application programming interface (API), such as a free rendering API, such as Open Graphics Library (OpenGL®), DirectX® 11, DirectX® 12, etc., where “dispatch” may be interchangeably referred to as “work unit” or “draw” and similarly, “application” may be interchangeably referred to as “workflow” or simply “agent”. For example, a workload, such as that of a three-dimensional (3D) game, may include and issue any number and type of “frames” where each frame may represent an image (e.g., sailboat, human face). Further, each frame may include and offer any number and type of work units, where each work unit may represent a part (e.g., mast of sailboat, forehead of human face) of the image (e.g., sailboat, human face) represented by its corresponding frame. However, for the sake of consistency, each item may be referenced by a single term (e.g., “dispatch”, “agent”, etc.) throughout this document.

In some embodiments, terms like “display screen” and “display surface” may be used interchangeably referring to the visible portion of a display device while the rest of the display device may be embedded into a computing device, such as a smartphone, a wearable device, etc. It is contemplated and to be noted that embodiments are not limited to any particular computing device, software application, hardware component, display device, display screen or surface, protocol, standard, etc. For example, embodiments may be applied to and used with any number and type of real-time applications on any number and type of computers, such as desktops, laptops, tablet computers, smartphones, head-mounted displays and other wearable devices, and/or the like. Further, for example, rendering scenarios for efficient performance using this novel technique may range from simple scenarios, such as desktop compositing, to complex scenarios, such as 3D games, augmented reality applications, etc.

System Overview

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a processing system 100, according to an embodiment. In various embodiments the system 100 includes one or more processors 102 and one or more graphics processors 108, and may be a single processor desktop system, a multiprocessor workstation system, or a server system having a large number of processors 102 or processor cores 107. In one embodiment, the system 100 is a processing platform incorporated within a system-on-a-chip (SoC) integrated circuit for use in mobile, handheld, or embedded devices.

An embodiment of system 100 can include, or be incorporated within a server-based gaming platform, a game console, including a game and media console, a mobile gaming console, a handheld game console, or an online game console. In some embodiments system 100 is a mobile phone, smart phone, tablet computing device or mobile Internet device. Data processing system 100 can also include, couple with, or be integrated within a wearable device, such as a smart watch wearable device, smart eyewear device, augmented reality device, or virtual reality device. In some embodiments, data processing system 100 is a television or set top box device having one or more processors 102 and a graphical interface generated by one or more graphics processors 108.

In some embodiments, the one or more processors 102 each include one or more processor cores 107 to process instructions which, when executed, perform operations for system and user software. In some embodiments, each of the one or more processor cores 107 is configured to process a specific instruction set 109. In some embodiments, instruction set 109 may facilitate Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC), Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC), or computing via a Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW). Multiple processor cores 107 may each process a different instruction set 109, which may include instructions to facilitate the emulation of other instruction sets. Processor core 107 may also include other processing devices, such a Digital Signal Processor (DSP).

In some embodiments, the processor 102 includes cache memory 104. Depending on the architecture, the processor 102 can have a single internal cache or multiple levels of internal cache. In some embodiments, the cache memory is shared among various components of the processor 102. In some embodiments, the processor 102 also uses an external cache (e.g., a Level-3 (L3) cache or Last Level Cache (LLC)) (not shown), which may be shared among processor cores 107 using known cache coherency techniques. A register file 106 is additionally included in processor 102 which may include different types of registers for storing different types of data (e.g., integer registers, floating point registers, status registers, and an instruction pointer register). Some registers may be general-purpose registers, while other registers may be specific to the design of the processor 102.

In some embodiments, processor 102 is coupled with a processor bus 110 to transmit communication signals such as address, data, or control signals between processor 102 and other components in system 100. In one embodiment the system 100 uses an exemplary ‘hub’ system architecture, including a memory controller hub 116 and an Input Output (I/O) controller hub 130. A memory controller hub 116 facilitates communication between a memory device and other components of system 100, while an I/O Controller Hub (ICH) 130 provides connections to I/O devices via a local 110 bus. In one embodiment, the logic of the memory controller hub 116 is integrated within the processor.

Memory device 120 can be a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device, a static random access memory (SRAM) device, flash memory device, phase-change memory device, or some other memory device having suitable performance to serve as process memory. In one embodiment the memory device 120 can operate as system memory for the system 100, to store data 122 and instructions 121 for use when the one or more processors 102 executes an application or process. Memory controller hub 116 also couples with an optional external graphics processor 112, which may communicate with the one or more graphics processors 108 in processors 102 to perform graphics and media operations.

In some embodiments, ICH 130 enables peripherals to connect to memory device 120 and processor 102 via a high-speed I/O bus. The I/O peripherals include, but are not limited to, an audio controller 146, a firmware interface 128, a wireless transceiver 126 (e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth), a data storage device 124 (e.g., hard disk drive, flash memory, etc.), and a legacy I/O controller 140 for coupling legacy (e.g., Personal System 2 (PS/2)) devices to the system. One or more Universal Serial Bus (USB) controllers 142 connect input devices, such as keyboard and mouse 144 combinations. A network controller 134 may also couple with ICH 130. In some embodiments, a high-performance network controller (not shown) couples with processor bus 110. It will be appreciated that the system 100 shown is exemplary and not limiting, as other types of data processing systems that are differently configured may also be used. For example, the I/O controller hub 130 may be integrated within the one or more processor 102, or the memory controller hub 116 and I/O controller hub 130 may be integrated into a discreet external graphics processor, such as the external graphics processor 112.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a processor 200 having one or more processor cores 202A-202N, an integrated memory controller 214, and an integrated graphics processor 208. Those elements of FIG. 2 having the same reference numbers (or names) as the elements of any other figure herein can operate or function in any manner similar to that described elsewhere herein, but are not limited to such. Processor 200 can include additional cores up to and including additional core 202N represented by the dashed lined boxes. Each of processor cores 202A-202N includes one or more internal cache units 204A-204N. In some embodiments each processor core also has access to one or more shared cached units 206.

The internal cache units 204A-204N and shared cache units 206 represent a cache memory hierarchy within the processor 200. The cache memory hierarchy may include at least one level of instruction and data cache within each processor core and one or more levels of shared mid-level cache, such as a Level 2 (L2), Level 3 (L3), Level 4 (L4), or other levels of cache, where the highest level of cache before external memory is classified as the LLC. In some embodiments, cache coherency logic maintains coherency between the various cache units 206 and 204A-204N.

In some embodiments, processor 200 may also include a set of one or more bus controller units 216 and a system agent core 210. The one or more bus controller units 216 manage a set of peripheral buses, such as one or more Peripheral Component Interconnect buses (e.g., PCI, PCI Express). System agent core 210 provides management functionality for the various processor components. In some embodiments, system agent core 210 includes one or more integrated memory controllers 214 to manage access to various external memory devices (not shown).

In some embodiments, one or more of the processor cores 202A-202N include support for simultaneous multi-threading. In such embodiment, the system agent core 210 includes components for coordinating and operating cores 202A-202N during multi-threaded processing. System agent core 210 may additionally include a power control unit (PCU), which includes logic and components to regulate the power state of processor cores 202A-202N and graphics processor 208.

In some embodiments, processor 200 additionally includes graphics processor 208 to execute graphics processing operations. In some embodiments, the graphics processor 208 couples with the set of shared cache units 206, and the system agent core 210, including the one or more integrated memory controllers 214. In some embodiments, a display controller 211 is coupled with the graphics processor 208 to drive graphics processor output to one or more coupled displays. In some embodiments, display controller 211 may be a separate module coupled with the graphics processor via at least one interconnect, or may be integrated within the graphics processor 208 or system agent core 210.

In some embodiments, a ring based interconnect unit 212 is used to couple the internal components of the processor 200. However, an alternative interconnect unit may be used, such as a point-to-point interconnect, a switched interconnect, or other techniques, including techniques well known in the art. In some embodiments, graphics processor 208 couples with the ring interconnect 212 via an I/O link 213.

The exemplary I/O link 213 represents at least one of multiple varieties of I/O interconnects, including an on package 10 interconnect which facilitates communication between various processor components and a high-performance embedded memory module 218, such as an eDRAM module. In some embodiments, each of the processor cores 202A-202N and graphics processor 208 use embedded memory modules 218 as a shared Last Level Cache.

In some embodiments, processor cores 202A-202N are homogenous cores executing the same instruction set architecture. In another embodiment, processor cores 202A-202N are heterogeneous in terms of instruction set architecture (ISA), where one or more of processor cores 202A-202N execute a first instruction set, while at least one of the other cores executes a subset of the first instruction set or a different instruction set. In one embodiment processor cores 202A-202N are heterogeneous in terms of microarchitecture, where one or more cores having a relatively higher power consumption couple with one or more power cores having a lower power consumption. Additionally, processor 200 can be implemented on one or more chips or as an SoC integrated circuit having the illustrated components, in addition to other components.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a graphics processor 300, which may be a discrete graphics processing unit, or may be a graphics processor integrated with a plurality of processing cores. In some embodiments, the graphics processor communicates via a memory mapped. I/O interface to registers on the graphics processor and with commands placed into the processor memory. In some embodiments, graphics processor 300 includes a memory interface 314 to access memory. Memory interface 314 can be an interface to local memory, one or more internal caches, one or more shared external caches, and/or to system memory.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 300 also includes a display controller 302 to drive display output data to a display device 320. Display controller 302 includes hardware for one or more overlay planes for the display and composition of multiple layers of video or user interface elements. In some embodiments, graphics processor 300 includes a video codec engine 306 to encode, decode, or transcode media to, from, or between one or more media encoding formats, including, but not limited to Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) formats such as MPEG-2, Advanced Video Coding (AVC) formats such as H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, as well as the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) 421M/VC-1, and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) formats such as JPEG, and Motion JPEG (MJPEG) formats.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 300 includes a block image transfer (BLIT) engine 304 to perform two-dimensional (2D) rasterizer operations including, for example, bit-boundary block transfers. However, in one embodiment, 2D graphics operations are performed using one or more components of graphics processing engine (GPE) 310. In some embodiments, GPE 310 is a compute engine for performing graphics operations, including three-dimensional (3D) graphics operations and media operations.

In some embodiments, GPE 310 includes a 3D pipeline 312 for performing 3D operations, such as rendering three-dimensional images and scenes using processing functions that act upon 3D primitive shapes (e.g., rectangle, triangle, etc.). The 3D pipeline 312 includes programmable and fixed function elements that perform various tasks within the element and/or spawn execution threads to a 3D/Media sub-system 315. While 3D pipeline 312 can be used to perform media operations, an embodiment of GPE 310 also includes a media pipeline 316 that is specifically used to perform media operations, such as video post-processing and image enhancement.

In some embodiments, media pipeline 316 includes fixed function or programmable logic units to perform one or more specialized media operations, such as video decode acceleration, video de-interlacing, and video encode acceleration in place of, or on behalf of video codec engine 306. In some embodiments, media pipeline 316 additionally includes a thread spawning unit to spawn threads for execution on 3D/Media sub-system 315. The spawned threads perform computations for the media operations on one or more graphics execution units included in 3D/Media sub-system 315.

In some embodiments, 3D/Media subsystem 315 includes logic for executing threads spawned by 3D pipeline 312 and media pipeline 316. In one embodiment, the pipelines send thread execution requests to 3D/Media subsystem 315, which includes thread dispatch logic for arbitrating and dispatching the various requests to available thread execution resources. The execution resources include an array of graphics execution units to process the 3D and media threads. In some embodiments, 3D/Media subsystem 315 includes one or more internal caches for thread instructions and data. In some embodiments, the subsystem also includes shared memory, including registers and addressable memory, to share between threads and to store output data.

Graphics Processing Engine

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a graphics processing engine 410 of a graphics processor in accordance with some embodiments. In one embodiment, the graphics processing engine (GPE) 410 is a version of the GPE 310 shown in FIG. 3 . Elements of FIG. 4 having the same reference numbers (or names) as the elements of any other figure herein can operate or function in any manner similar to that described elsewhere herein, but are not limited to such. For example, the 3D pipeline 312 and media pipeline 316 of FIG. 3 are illustrated. The media pipeline 316 is optional in some embodiments of the GPE 410 and may not be explicitly included within the GPE 410. For example and in at least one embodiment, a separate media and/or image processor is coupled to the GPE 410.

In some embodiments, GPE 410 couples with or includes a command streamer 403, which provides a command stream to the 3D pipeline 312 and/or media pipelines 316. In some embodiments, command streamer 403 is coupled with memory, which can be system memory, or one or more of internal cache memory and shared cache memory. In some embodiments, command streamer 403 receives commands from the memory and sends the commands to 3D pipeline 312 and/or media pipeline 316. The commands are directives fetched from a ring buffer, which stores commands for the 3D pipeline 312 and media pipeline 316. In one embodiment, the ring buffer can additionally include batch command buffers storing batches of multiple commands. The commands for the 3D pipeline 312 can also include references to data stored in memory, such as but not limited to vertex and geometry data for the 3D pipeline 312 and/or image data and memory objects for the media pipeline 316. The 3D pipeline 312 and media pipeline 316 process the commands and data by performing operations via logic within the respective pipelines or by dispatching one or more execution threads to a graphics core array 414.

In various embodiments the 3D pipeline 312 can execute one or more shader programs, such as vertex shaders, geometry shaders, pixel shaders, fragment shaders, compute shaders, or other shader programs, by processing the instructions and dispatching execution threads to the graphics core array 414. The graphics core array 414 provides a unified block of execution resources. Multi-purpose execution logic (e.g., execution units) within the graphic core array 414 includes support for various 3D API shader languages and can execute multiple simultaneous execution threads associated with multiple shaders.

In some embodiments the graphics core array 414 also includes execution logic to perform media functions, such as video and/or image processing. In one embodiment, the execution units additionally include general-purpose logic that is programmable to perform parallel general purpose computational operations, in addition to graphics processing operations. The general purpose logic can perform processing operations in parallel or in conjunction with general purpose logic within the processor core(s) 107 of FIG. 1 or core 202A-202N as in FIG. 2 .

Output data generated by threads executing on the graphics core array 414 can output data to memory in a unified return buffer (URB) 418. The URB 418 can store data for multiple threads. In some embodiments the URB 418 may be used to send data between different threads executing on the graphics core array 414. In some embodiments the URB 418 may additionally be used for synchronization between threads on the graphics core array and fixed function logic within the shared function logic 420.

In some embodiments, graphics core array 414 is scalable, such that the array includes a variable number of graphics cores, each having a variable number of execution units based on the target power and performance level of GPE 410. In one embodiment the execution resources are dynamically scalable, such that execution resources may be enabled or disabled as needed.

The graphics core array 414 couples with shared function logic 420 that includes multiple resources that are shared between the graphics cores in the graphics core array. The shared functions within the shared function logic 420 are hardware logic units that provide specialized supplemental functionality to the graphics core array 414. In various embodiments, shared function logic 420 includes but is not limited to sampler 421, math 422, and inter-thread communication (ITC) 423 logic. Additionally, some embodiments implement one or more cache(s) 425 within the shared function logic 420. A shared function is implemented where the demand for a given specialized function is insufficient for inclusion within the graphics core array 414. Instead a single instantiation of that specialized function is implemented as a stand-alone entity in the shared function logic 420 and shared among the execution resources within the graphics core array 414. The precise set of functions that are shared between the graphics core array 414 and included within the graphics core array 414 varies between embodiments.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of another embodiment of a graphics processor 500. Elements of FIG. 5 having the same reference numbers (or names) as the elements of any other figure herein can operate or function in any manner similar to that described elsewhere herein, but are not limited to such.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 500 includes a ring interconnect 502, a pipeline front-end 504, a media engine 537, and graphics cores 580A-580N. In some embodiments, ring interconnect 502 couples the graphics processor to other processing units, including other graphics processors or one or more general-purpose processor cores. In some embodiments, the graphics processor is one of many processors integrated within a multi-core processing system.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 500 receives batches of commands via ring interconnect 502. The incoming commands are interpreted by a command streamer 503 in the pipeline front-end 504. In some embodiments, graphics processor 500 includes scalable execution logic to perform 3D geometry processing and media processing via the graphics core(s) 580A-580N. For 3D geometry processing commands, command streamer 503 supplies commands to geometry pipeline 536. For at least some media processing commands, command streamer 503 supplies the commands to a video front end 534, which couples with a media engine 537. In some embodiments, media engine 537 includes a Video Quality Engine (VQE) 530 for video and image post-processing and a multi-format encode/decode (MFX) 533 engine to provide hardware-accelerated media data encode and decode. In some embodiments, geometry pipeline 536 and media engine 537 each generate execution threads for the thread execution resources provided by at least one graphics core 580A.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 500 includes scalable thread execution resources featuring modular cores 580A-580N (sometimes referred to as core slices), each having multiple sub-cores 550A-550N, 560A-560N (sometimes referred to as core sub-slices). In some embodiments, graphics processor 500 can have any number of graphics cores 580A through 580N. In some embodiments, graphics processor 500 includes a graphics core 580A having at least a first sub-core 550A and a second sub-core 560A. In other embodiments, the graphics processor is a low power processor with a single sub-core (e.g., 550A). In some embodiments, graphics processor 500 includes multiple graphics cores 580A-580N, each including a set of first sub-cores 550A-550N and a set of second sub-cores 560A-560N. Each sub-core in the set of first sub-cores 550A-550N includes at least a first set of execution units 552A-552N and media/texture samplers 554A-554N. Each sub-core in the set of second sub-cores 560A-560N includes at least a second set of execution units 562A-562N and samplers 564A-564N. In some embodiments, each sub-core 550A-550N, 560A-560N shares a set of shared resources 570A-570N. In some embodiments, the shared resources include shared cache memory and pixel operation logic. Other shared resources may also be included in the various embodiments of the graphics processor.

Execution Units

FIG. 6 illustrates thread execution logic 600 including an array of processing elements employed in some embodiments of a GPE. Elements of FIG. 6 having the same reference numbers (or names) as the elements of any other figure herein can operate or function in any manner similar to that described elsewhere herein, but are not limited to such.

In some embodiments, thread execution logic 600 includes a shader processor 602, a thread dispatcher 604, instruction cache 606, a scalable execution unit array including a plurality of execution units 608A-608N, a sampler 610, a data cache 612, and a data port 614. In one embodiment the scalable execution unit array can dynamically scale by enabling or disabling one or more execution units (e.g., any of execution unit 608A, 608B, 608C, 608D, through 608N-1 and 608N) based on the computational requirements of a workload. In one embodiment the included components are interconnected via an interconnect fabric that links to each of the components. In some embodiments, thread execution logic 600 includes one or more connections to memory, such as system memory or cache memory, through one or more of instruction cache 606, data port 614, sampler 610, and execution units 608A-608N. In some embodiments, each execution unit (e.g. 608A) is a stand-alone programmable general purpose computational unit that is capable of executing multiple simultaneous hardware threads while processing multiple data elements in parallel for each thread. In various embodiments, the array of execution units 608A-608N is scalable to include any number individual execution units.

In some embodiments, the execution units 608A-608N are primarily used to execute shader programs. A shader processor 602 can process the various shader programs and dispatch execution threads associated with the shader programs via a thread dispatcher 604. In one embodiment the thread dispatcher includes logic to arbitrate thread initiation requests from the graphics and media pipelines and instantiate the requested threads on one or more execution unit in the execution units 608A-608N. For example, the geometry pipeline (e.g., 536 of FIG. 5 ) can dispatch vertex, tessellation, or geometry shaders to the thread execution logic 600 (FIG. 6 ) for processing. In some embodiments, thread dispatcher 604 can also process runtime thread spawning requests from the executing shader programs.

In some embodiments, the execution units 608A-608N support an instruction set that includes native support for many standard 3D graphics shader instructions, such that shader programs from graphics libraries (e.g., Direct 3D and OpenGL) are executed with a minimal translation. The execution units support vertex and geometry processing (e.g., vertex programs, geometry programs, vertex shaders), pixel processing (e.g., pixel shaders, fragment shaders) and general-purpose processing (e.g., compute and media shaders). Each of the execution units 608A-608N is capable of multi-issue single instruction multiple data (SIMD) execution and multi-threaded operation enables an efficient execution environment in the face of higher latency memory accesses. Each hardware thread within each execution unit has a dedicated high-bandwidth register file and associated independent thread-state. Execution is multi-issue per clock to pipelines capable of integer, single and double precision floating point operations, SIMD branch capability, logical operations, transcendental operations, and other miscellaneous operations. While waiting for data from memory or one of the shared functions, dependency logic within the execution units 608A-608N causes a waiting thread to sleep until the requested data has been returned. While the waiting thread is sleeping, hardware resources may be devoted to processing other threads. For example, during a delay associated with a vertex shader operation, an execution unit can perform operations for a pixel shader, fragment shader, or another type of shader program, including a different vertex shader.

Each execution unit in execution units 608A-608N operates on arrays of data elements. The number of data elements is the “execution size,” or the number of channels for the instruction. An execution channel is a logical unit of execution for data element access, masking, and flow control within instructions. The number of channels may be independent of the number of physical Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) or Floating Point Units (FPUs) for a particular graphics processor. In some embodiments, execution units 608A-608N support integer and floating-point data types.

The execution unit instruction set includes SI instructions. The various data elements can be stored as a packed data type in a register and the execution unit will process the various elements based on the data size of the elements. For example, when operating on a 256-bit wide vector, the 256 bits of the vector are stored in a register and the execution unit operates on the vector as four separate 64-bit packed data elements (Quad-Word (QW) size data elements), eight separate 32-bit packed data elements (Double Word (DW) size data elements), sixteen separate 16-bit packed data elements (Word (W) size data elements), or thirty-two separate 8-bit data elements (byte (B) size data elements). However, different vector widths and register sizes are possible.

One or more internal instruction caches (e.g., 606) are included in the thread execution logic 600 to cache thread instructions for the execution units. In some embodiments, one or more data caches (e.g., 612) are included to cache thread data during thread execution. In some embodiments, a sampler 610 is included to provide texture sampling for 3D operations and media sampling for media operations. In some embodiments, sampler 610 includes specialized texture or media sampling functionality to process texture or media data during the sampling process before providing the sampled data to an execution unit.

During execution, the graphics and media pipelines send thread initiation requests to thread execution logic 600 via thread spawning and dispatch logic. Once a group of geometric objects has been processed and rasterized into pixel data, pixel processor logic (e.g., pixel shader logic, fragment shader logic, etc.) within the shader processor 602 is invoked to further compute output information and cause results to be written to output surfaces (e.g., color buffers, depth buffers, stencil buffers, etc.). In some embodiments, a pixel shader or fragment shader calculates the values of the various vertex attributes that are to be interpolated across the rasterized object. In some embodiments, pixel processor logic within the shader processor 602 then executes an application programming interface (API)-supplied pixel or fragment shader program. To execute the shader program, the shader processor 602 dispatches threads to an execution unit (e.g., 608A) via thread dispatcher 604. In some embodiments, pixel shader 602 uses texture sampling logic in the sampler 610 to access texture data in texture maps stored in memory. Arithmetic operations on the texture data and the input geometry data compute pixel color data for each geometric fragment, or discards one or more pixels from further processing.

In some embodiments, the data port 614 provides a memory access mechanism for the thread execution logic 600 output processed data to memory for processing on a graphics processor output pipeline. In some embodiments, the data port 614 includes or couples to one or more cache memories (e.g., data cache 612) to cache data for memory access via the data port.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a graphics processor instruction formats 700 according to some embodiments. In one or more embodiment, the graphics processor execution units support an instruction set having instructions in multiple formats. The solid lined boxes illustrate the components that are generally included in an execution unit instruction, while the dashed lines include components that are optional or that are only included in a sub-set of the instructions. In some embodiments, instruction format 700 described and illustrated are macro-instructions, in that they are instructions supplied to the execution unit, as opposed to micro-operations resulting from instruction decode once the instruction is processed.

In some embodiments, the graphics processor execution units natively support instructions in a 128-bit instruction format 710. A 64-bit compacted instruction format 730 is available for some instructions based on the selected instruction, instruction options, and number of operands. The native 128-bit instruction format 710 provides access to all instruction options, while some options and operations are restricted in the 64-bit format 730. The native instructions available in the 64-bit format 730 vary by embodiment. In some embodiments, the instruction is compacted in part using a set of index values in an index field 713. The execution unit hardware references a set of compaction tables based on the index values and uses the compaction table outputs to reconstruct a native instruction in the 128-bit instruction format 710.

For each format, instruction opcode 712 defines the operation that the execution unit is to perform. The execution units execute each instruction in parallel across the multiple data elements of each operand. For example, in response to an add instruction the execution unit performs a simultaneous add operation across each color channel representing a texture element or picture element. By default, the execution unit performs each instruction across all data channels of the operands. In some embodiments, instruction control field 714 enables control over certain execution options, such as channels selection (e.g., predication) and data channel order (e.g., swizzle). For instructions in the 128-bit instruction format 710 an exec-size field 716 limits the number of data channels that will be executed in parallel. In some embodiments, exec-size field 716 is not available for use in the 64-bit compact instruction format 730.

Some execution unit instructions have up to three operands including two source operands, src0 720, src1 722, and one destination 718. In some embodiments, the execution units support dual destination instructions, where one of the destinations is implied. Data manipulation instructions can have a third source operand (e.g., SRC2 724), where the instruction opcode 712 determines the number of source operands. An instruction's last source operand can be an immediate (e.g., hard-coded) value passed with the instruction.

In some embodiments, the 128-bit instruction format 710 includes an access/address mode field 726 specifying, for example, whether direct register addressing mode or indirect register addressing mode is used. When direct register addressing mode is used, the register address of one or more operands is directly provided by bits in the instruction.

In some embodiments, the 128-bit instruction format 710 includes an access/address mode field 726, which specifies an address mode and/or an access mode for the instruction. In one embodiment the access mode is used to define a data access alignment for the instruction. Some embodiments support access modes including a 16-byte aligned access mode and a 1-byte aligned access mode, where the byte alignment of the access mode determines the access alignment of the instruction operands. For example, when in a first mode, the instruction may use byte-aligned addressing for source and destination operands and when in a second mode, the instruction may use 16-byte-aligned addressing for all source and destination operands.

In one embodiment, the address mode portion of the access/address mode field 726 determines whether the instruction is to use direct or indirect addressing. When direct register addressing mode is used bits in the instruction directly provide the register address of one or more operands. When indirect register addressing mode is used, the register address of one or more operands may be computed based on an address register value and an address immediate field in the instruction.

In some embodiments instructions are grouped based on opcode 712 bit-fields to simplify Opcode decode 740. For an 8-bit opcode, bits 4, 5, and 6 allow the execution unit to determine the type of opcode. The precise opcode grouping shown is merely an example. In some embodiments, a move and logic opcode group 742 includes data movement and logic instructions (e.g., move (mov), compare (cmp)). In some embodiments, move and logic group 742 shares the five most significant bits (MSB), where move (rnov) instructions are in the form of 0000xxxxb and logic instructions are in the form of 0001xxxxb. A flow control instruction group 744 (e.g., call, jump (limp)) includes instructions in the form of 0010xxxxb (e.g., 0x20). A miscellaneous instruction group 746 includes a mix of instructions, including synchronization instructions (e.g., wait, send) in the form of 0011xxxxb (e.g., 0x30). A parallel math instruction group 748 includes component-wise arithmetic instructions (e.g., add, multiply (mul)) in the form of 0100xxxxb (e.g., 0x40). The parallel math group 748 performs the arithmetic operations in parallel across data channels. The vector math group 750 includes arithmetic instructions (e.g., dp4) in the form of 0101xxxxb (e.g., 0x50). The vector math group performs arithmetic such as dot product calculations on vector operands.

Graphics Pipeline

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of another embodiment of a graphics processor 800. Elements of FIG. 8 having the same reference numbers (or names) as the elements of any other figure herein can operate or function in any manner similar to that described elsewhere herein, but are not limited to such.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 800 includes a graphics pipeline 820, a media pipeline 830, a display engine 840, thread execution logic 850, and a render output pipeline 870. In some embodiments, graphics processor 800 is a graphics processor within a multi-core processing system that includes one or more general purpose processing cores. The graphics processor is controlled by register writes to one or more control registers (not shown) or via commands issued to graphics processor 800 via a ring interconnect 802. In some embodiments, ring interconnect 802 couples graphics processor 800 to other processing components, such as other graphics processors or general-purpose processors. Commands from ring interconnect 802 are interpreted by a command streamer 803, which supplies instructions to individual components of graphics pipeline 820 or media pipeline 830.

In some embodiments, command streamer 803 directs the operation of a vertex fetcher 805 that reads vertex data from memory and executes vertex-processing commands provided by, command streamer 803. In some embodiments, vertex fetcher 805 provides vertex data to a vertex shader 807, which performs coordinate space transformation and lighting operations to each vertex. In some embodiments, vertex fetcher 805 and vertex shader 807 execute vertex-processing instructions by dispatching execution threads to execution units 852A-852B via a thread dispatcher 831.

In some embodiments, execution units 852A-852B are an array of vector processors having an instruction set for performing graphics and media operations. In some embodiments, execution units 852A-852B have an attached L1 cache 851 that is specific for each array or shared between the arrays. The cache can be configured as a data cache, an instruction cache, or a single cache that is partitioned to contain data and instructions in different partitions.

In some embodiments, graphics pipeline 820 includes tessellation components to perform hardware-accelerated tessellation of 3D objects. In some embodiments, a programmable hull shader 811 configures the tessellation operations. A programmable domain shader 817 provides back-end evaluation of tessellation output, where tessellator 813 operates at the direction of hull shader 811 and contains special purpose logic to generate a set of detailed geometric objects based on a coarse geometric model that is provided as input to graphics pipeline 820. In some embodiments, if tessellation is not used, tessellation components (e.g., hull shader 811, tessellator 813, and domain shader 817) can be bypassed.

In some embodiments, complete geometric objects can be processed by a geometry shader 819 via one or more threads dispatched to execution units 852A-852B, or can proceed directly to the clipper 829. In some embodiments, the geometry shader operates on entire geometric objects, rather than vertices or patches of vertices as in previous stages of the graphics pipeline. If the tessellation is disabled the geometry shader 819 receives input from the vertex shader 807. In some embodiments, geometry shader 819 is programmable by a geometry shader program to perform geometry tessellation if the tessellation units are disabled.

Before rasterization, a clipper 829 processes vertex data. The clipper 829 may be a fixed function clipper or a programmable clipper having clipping and geometry shader functions. In some embodiments, a rasterizer and depth test component 873 in the render output pipeline 870 dispatches pixel shaders to convert the geometric objects into their per pixel representations. In some embodiments, pixel shader logic is included in thread execution logic 850. In some embodiments, an application can bypass the rasterizer and depth test component 873 and access un-rasterized vertex data via a stream out unit 823.

The graphics processor 800 has an interconnect bus, interconnect fabric, or some other interconnect mechanism that allows data and message passing amongst the major components of the processor. In some embodiments, execution units 852A-852B and associated cache(s) 851, texture and media sampler 854, and texture/sampler cache 858 interconnect via a data port 856 to perform memory access and communicate with render output pipeline components of the processor. In some embodiments, sampler 854, caches 851, 858 and execution units 852A-852B each have separate memory access paths.

In some embodiments, render output pipeline 870 contains a rasterizer and depth test component 873 that converts vertex-based objects into an associated pixel-based representation. In some embodiments, the rasterizer logic includes a windower/masker unit to perform fixed function triangle and line rasterization. An associated render cache 878 and depth cache 879 are also available in some embodiments. A pixel operations component 877 performs pixel-based operations on the data, though in some instances, pixel operations associated with 2D operations (e.g. bit block image transfers with blending) are performed by the 2D engine 841, or substituted at display time by the display controller 843 using overlay display planes. In some embodiments, a shared L3 cache 875 is available to all graphics components, allowing the sharing of data without the use of main system memory.

In some embodiments, graphics processor media pipeline 830 includes a media engine 837 and a video front end 834. In some embodiments, video front end 834 receives pipeline commands from the command streamer 803. In some embodiments, media pipeline 830 includes a separate command streamer. In some embodiments, video front-end 834 processes media commands before sending the command to the media engine 837. In some embodiments, media engine 837 includes thread spawning functionality to spawn threads for dispatch to thread execution logic 850 via thread dispatcher 831.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 800 includes a display engine 840. In some embodiments, display engine 840 is external to processor 800 and couples with the graphics processor via the ring interconnect 802, or some other interconnect bus or fabric. In some embodiments, display engine 840 includes a 2D engine 841 and a display controller 843. In some embodiments, display engine 840 contains special purpose logic capable of operating independently of the 3D pipeline. In some embodiments, display controller 843 couples with a display device (not shown), which may be a system integrated display device, as in a laptop computer, or an external display device attached via a display device connector.

In some embodiments, graphics pipeline 820 and media pipeline 830 are configurable to perform operations based on multiple graphics and media programming interfaces and are not specific to any one application programming interface (API). In some embodiments, driver software for the graphics processor translates API calls that are specific to a particular graphics or media library into commands that can be processed by the graphics processor. In some embodiments, support is provided for the Open Graphics Library (OpenGL), Open Computing Language (OpenCL), and/or Vulkan graphics and compute API, all from the Khronos Group. In some embodiments, support may also be provided for the Direct3D library from the Microsoft Corporation. In some embodiments, a combination of these libraries may be supported. Support may also be provided for the Open Source Computer Vision Library (OpenCV). A future API with a compatible 3D pipeline would also be supported if a mapping can be made from the pipeline of the future API to the pipeline of the graphics processor.

Graphics Pipeline Programming

FIG. 9A is a block diagram illustrating a graphics processor command format 900 according to some embodiments. FIG. 9B is a block diagram illustrating a graphics processor command sequence 910 according to an embodiment. The solid lined boxes in FIG. 9A illustrate the components that are generally included in a graphics command while the dashed lines include components that are optional or that are only included in a sub-set of the graphics commands. The exemplary graphics processor command format 900 of FIG. 9A includes data fields to identify a target client 902 of the command, a command operation code (opcode) 904, and the relevant data 906 for the command. A sub-opcode 905 and a command size 908 are also included in some commands.

In some embodiments, client 902 specifies the client unit of the graphics device that processes the command data. In some embodiments, a graphics processor command parser examines the client field of each command to condition the further processing of the command and route the command data to the appropriate client unit. In some embodiments, the graphics processor client units include a memory interface unit, a render unit, a 2D unit, a 3D unit, and a media unit. Each client unit has a corresponding processing pipeline that processes the commands. Once the command is received by the client unit, the client unit reads the opcode 904 and, if present, sub-opcode 905 to determine the operation to perform. The client unit performs the command using information in data field 906. For some commands an explicit command size 908 is expected to specify the size of the command. In some embodiments, the command parser automatically determines the size of at least some of the commands based on the command opcode. In some embodiments commands are aligned via multiples of a double word.

The flow diagram in FIG. 9B shows an exemplary graphics processor command sequence 910. In some embodiments, software or firmware of a data processing system that features an embodiment of a graphics processor uses a version of the command sequence shown to set up, execute, and terminate a set of graphics operations. A sample command sequence is shown and described for purposes of example only as embodiments are not limited to these specific commands or to this command sequence. Moreover, the commands may be issued as batch of commands in a command sequence, such that the graphics processor will process the sequence of commands in at least partially concurrence.

In some embodiments, the graphics processor command sequence 910 may begin with a pipeline flush command 912 to cause any active graphics pipeline to complete the currently pending commands for the pipeline. In some embodiments, the 3D pipeline 922 and the media pipeline 924 do not operate concurrently. The pipeline flush is performed to cause the active graphics pipeline to complete any pending commands. In response to a pipeline flush, the command parser for the graphics processor will pause command processing until the active drawing engines complete pending operations and the relevant read caches are invalidated, Optionally, any data in the render cache that is marked ‘dirty’ can be flushed to memory. In some embodiments, pipeline flush command 912 can be used for pipeline synchronization or before placing the graphics processor into a low power state.

In some embodiments, a pipeline select command 913 is used when a command sequence requires the graphics processor to explicitly switch between pipelines. In some embodiments, a pipeline select command 913 is required only once within an execution context before issuing pipeline commands unless the context is to issue commands for both pipelines. In some embodiments, a pipeline flush command 912 is required immediately before a pipeline switch via the pipeline select command 913.

In some embodiments, a pipeline control command 914 configures a graphics pipeline for operation and is used to program the 3D pipeline 922 and the media pipeline 924. In some embodiments, pipeline control command 914 configures the pipeline state for the active pipeline. In one embodiment, the pipeline control command 914 is used for pipeline synchronization and to clear data from one or more cache memories within the active pipeline before processing a batch of commands.

In some embodiments, return buffer state commands 916 are used to configure a set of return buffers for the respective pipelines to write data. Some pipeline operations require the allocation, selection, or configuration of one or more return buffers into which the operations write intermediate data during processing. In some embodiments, the graphics processor also uses one or more return buffers to store output data and to perform cross thread communication. In some embodiments, the return buffer state 916 includes selecting the size and number of return buffers to use for a set of pipeline operations.

The remaining commands in the command sequence differ based on the active pipeline for operations. Based on a pipeline determination 920, the command sequence is tailored to the 3D pipeline 922 beginning with the 3D pipeline state 930 or the media pipeline 924 beginning at the media pipeline state 940.

The commands to configure the 3D pipeline state 930 include 3D state setting commands for vertex buffer state, vertex element state, constant color state, depth buffer state, and other state variables that are to be configured before 3D primitive commands are processed. The values of these commands are determined at least in part based on the particular 3D API in use. In some embodiments, 3D pipeline state 930 commands are also able to selectively disable or bypass certain pipeline elements if those elements will not be used.

In some embodiments, 3D primitive 932 command is used to submit 31) primitives to be processed by the 3D pipeline. Commands and associated parameters that are passed to the graphics processor via the 3D primitive 932 command are forwarded to the vertex fetch function in the graphics pipeline. The vertex fetch function uses the 3D primitive 932 command data to generate vertex data structures. The vertex data structures are stored in one or more return buffers. In some embodiments, 3D primitive 932 command is used to perform vertex operations on 3D primitives via vertex shaders. To process vertex shaders, 3D pipeline 922 dispatches shader execution threads to graphics processor execution units.

In some embodiments, 3D pipeline 922 is triggered via an execute 934 command or event. In some embodiments, a register write triggers command execution. In some embodiments execution is triggered via a ‘go’ or ‘kick’ command in the command sequence. In one embodiment, command execution is triggered using a pipeline synchronization command to flush the command sequence through the graphics pipeline. The 3D pipeline will perform geometry processing for the 3D primitives. Once operations are complete, the resulting geometric objects are rasterized and the pixel engine colors the resulting pixels. Additional commands to control pixel shading and pixel back end operations may also be included for those operations.

In some embodiments, the graphics processor command sequence 910 follows the media pipeline 924 path when performing media operations. In general, the specific use and manner of programming for the media pipeline 924 depends on the media or compute operations to be performed. Specific media decode operations may be offloaded to the media pipeline during media decode. In some embodiments, the media pipeline can also be bypassed and media decode can be performed in whole or in part using resources provided by one or more general purpose processing cores. In one embodiment, the media pipeline also includes elements for general-purpose graphics processor unit (GPGPU) operations, where the graphics processor is used to perform SIMD vector operations using computational shader programs that are not explicitly related to the rendering of graphics primitives.

In some embodiments, media pipeline 924 is configured in a similar manner as the 3D pipeline 922. A set of commands to configure the media pipeline state 940 are dispatched or placed into a command queue before the media object commands 942. In some embodiments, media pipeline state commands 940 include data to configure the media pipeline elements that will be used to process the media objects. This includes data to configure the video decode and video encode logic within the media pipeline, such as encode or decode format. In some embodiments, media pipeline state commands 940 also support the use of one or more pointers to “indirect” state elements that contain a batch of state settings.

In some embodiments, media object commands 942 supply pointers to media objects for processing by the media pipeline. The media objects include memory buffers containing video data to be processed. In some embodiments, all media pipeline states must be valid before issuing a media object command 942. Once the pipeline state is configured and media object commands 942 are queued, the media pipeline 924 is triggered via an execute command 944 or an equivalent execute event (e.g., register write). Output from media pipeline 924 may then be post processed by operations provided by the 3D pipeline 922 or the media pipeline 924. In some embodiments, GPGPU operations are configured and executed in a similar manner as media operations.

Graphics Software Architecture

FIG. 10 illustrates exemplary graphics software architecture for a data processing system 1000 according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, software architecture includes a 3D graphics application 1010, an operating system 1020, and at least one processor 1030. In some embodiments, processor 1030 includes a graphics processor 1032 and one or more general-purpose processor core(s) 1034. The graphics application 1010 and operating system 1020 each execute in the system memory 1050 of the data processing system.

In some embodiments, 3D graphics application 1010 contains one or more shader programs including shader instructions 1012. The shader language instructions may be in a high-level shader language, such as the High Level Shader Language (HLSL) or the OpenGL Shader Language (GLSL). The application also includes executable instructions 1014 in a machine language suitable for execution by the general-purpose processor core 1034. The application also includes graphics objects 1016 defined by vertex data.

In some embodiments, operating system 1020 is a Microsoft® Windows@ operating system from the Microsoft Corporation, a proprietary UNIX-like operating system, or an open source UNIX-like operating system using a variant of the Linux kernel. The operating system 1020 can support a graphics API 1022 such as the Direct3D API, the OpenGL API, or the Vulkan API. When the Direct3D API is in use, the operating system 1020 uses a front-end shader compiler 1024 to compile any shader instructions 1012 in HLSL into a lower-level shader language. The compilation may be a just-in-time (JIT) compilation or the application can perform shader pre-compilation. In some embodiments, high-level shaders are compiled into low-level shaders during the compilation of the 3D graphics application 1010. In some embodiments, the shader instructions 1012 are provided in an intermediate form, such as a version of the Standard Portable Intermediate Representation (SPIR) used by the Vulkan API.

In some embodiments, user mode graphics driver 1026 contains a back-end shader compiler 1027 to convert the shader instructions 1012 into a hardware specific representation. When the OpenGL API is in use, shader instructions 1012 in the GLSL high-level language are passed to a user mode graphics driver 1026 for compilation. In some embodiments, user mode graphics driver 1026 uses operating system kernel mode functions 1028 to communicate with a kernel mode graphics driver 1029. In some embodiments, kernel mode graphics driver 1029 communicates with graphics processor 1032 to dispatch commands and instructions.

IP Core Implementations

One or more aspects of at least one embodiment may be implemented by representative code stored on a machine-readable medium which represents and/or defines logic within an integrated circuit such as a processor. For example, the machine-readable medium may include instructions which represent various logic within the processor. When read by a machine, the instructions may cause the machine to fabricate the logic to perform the techniques described herein. Such representations, known as “IP cores,” are reusable units of logic for an integrated circuit that may be stored on a tangible, machine-readable medium as a hardware model that describes the structure of the integrated circuit. The hardware model may be supplied to various customers or manufacturing facilities, which load the hardware model on fabrication machines that manufacture the integrated circuit. The integrated circuit may be fabricated such that the circuit performs operations described in association with any of the embodiments described herein.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an IP core development system 1100 that may be used to manufacture an integrated circuit to perform operations according to an embodiment. The IP core development system 1100 may be used to generate modular, re-usable designs that can be incorporated into a larger design or used to construct an entire integrated circuit (e.g., an SOC integrated circuit). A design facility 1130 can generate a software simulation 1110 of an IP core design in a high level programming language (e.g., C/C++). The software simulation 1110 can be used to design, test, and verify the behavior of the IP core using a simulation model 1112. The simulation model 1112 may include functional, behavioral, and/or timing simulations. A register transfer level (RTL) design 1115 can then be created or synthesized from the simulation model 1112. The RTL design 1115 is an abstraction of the behavior of the integrated circuit that models the flow of digital signals between hardware registers, including the associated logic performed using the modeled digital signals. In addition to an RTL design 1115, lower-level designs at the logic level or transistor level may also be created, designed, or synthesized. Thus, the particular details of the initial design and simulation may vary.

The RTL design 1115 or equivalent may be further synthesized by the design facility into a hardware model 1120, which may be in a hardware description language (HDL), or some other representation of physical design data. The HDL may be further simulated or tested to verify the IP core design. The IP core design can be stored for delivery to a 3^(rd) party fabrication facility 1165 using non-volatile memory 1140 (e.g., hard disk, flash memory, or any non-volatile storage medium). Alternatively, the IP core design may be transmitted (e.g., via the Internet) over a wired connection 1150 or wireless connection 1160. The fabrication facility 1165 may then fabricate an integrated circuit that is based at least in part on the IP core design. The fabricated integrated circuit can be configured to perform operations in accordance with at least one embodiment described herein.

Exemplary System on a Chip Integrated Circuit

FIGS. 12-14 illustrated exemplary integrated circuits and associated graphics processors that may be fabricated using one or more IP cores, according to various embodiments described herein. In addition to what is illustrated, other logic and circuits may be included, including additional graphics processors/cores, peripheral interface controllers, or general purpose processor cores.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system on a chip integrated circuit 1200 that may be fabricated using one or more IP cores, according to an embodiment. Exemplary integrated circuit 1200 includes one or more application processor(s) 1205 (e.g., CPUs), at least one graphics processor 1210, and may additionally include an image processor 1215 and/or a video processor 1220, any of which may be a modular IP core from the same or multiple different design facilities. Integrated circuit 1200 includes peripheral or bus logic including a USB controller 1225, UART controller 1230, an SPI/SDIO controller 1235, and an I²S/I²C controller 1240. Additionally, the integrated circuit can include a display device 1245 coupled to one or more of a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) controller 1250 and a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) display interface 1255. Storage may be provided by a flash memory subsystem 1260 including flash memory and a flash memory controller. Memory interface may be provided via a memory controller 1265 for access to SDRAM or SRAM memory devices. Some integrated circuits additionally include an embedded security engine 1270.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary graphics processor 1310 of a system on a chip integrated circuit that may be fabricated using one or more IP cores, according to an embodiment. Graphics processor 1310 can be a variant of the graphics processor 1210 of FIG. 12 . Graphics processor 1310 includes a vertex processor 1305 and one or more fragment processor(s) 1315A1315N (e.g., 1315A, 1315B, 1315C, 1315D, through 1315N-1, and 1315N). Graphics processor 1310 can execute different shader programs via separate logic, such that the vertex processor 1305 is optimized to execute operations for vertex shader programs, while the one or more fragment processor(s) 1315A-1315N execute fragment (e.g., pixel) shading operations for fragment or pixel shader programs. The vertex processor 1305 performs the vertex processing stage of the 3D graphics pipeline and generates primitives and vertex data. The fragment processor(s) 1315A-1315N use the primitive and vertex data generated by the vertex processor 1305 to produce a framebuffer that is displayed on a display device. In one embodiment, the fragment processor(s) 1315A-1315N are optimized to execute fragment shader programs as provided for in the OpenGL API, which may be used to perform similar operations as a pixel shader program as provided for in the Direct 3D API.

Graphics processor 1310 additionally includes one or more memory management units (MMUs) 1320A-1320B, cache(s) 1325A-1325B, and circuit interconnect(s) 1330A-1330B. The one or more MMU(s) 1320A-1320B provide for virtual to physical address mapping for integrated circuit 1310, including for the vertex processor 1305 and/or fragment processor(s) 1315A-1315N, which may reference vertex or image/texture data stored in memory, in addition to vertex or image/texture data stored in the one or more cache(s) 1325A-1325B. In one embodiment the one or more MMU(s) 1325A-1325B may be synchronized with other MMUs within the system, including one or more MMUs associated with the one or more application processor(s) 1205, image processor 1215, and/or video processor 1220 of FIG. 12 , such that each processor 1205-1220 can participate in a shared or unified virtual memory system. The one or more circuit interconnect(s) 1330A-1330B enable graphics processor 1310 to interface with other IP cores within the SoC, either via an internal bus of the SoC or via a direct connection, according to embodiments,

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating an additional exemplary graphics processor 1410 of a system on a chip integrated circuit that may be fabricated using one or more IP cores, according to an embodiment. Graphics processor 1410 can be a variant of the graphics processor 1210 of FIG. 12 . Graphics processor 1410 includes the one or more MMU(s) 1320A-1320B, caches 1325A-1325B, and circuit interconnects 1330A-1330B of the integrated circuit 1300 of FIG. 13 .

Graphics processor 1410 includes one or more shader core(s) 1415A-1415N (e.g., 1415A, 1415B, 14150, 1415D, 1415E, 1415F, through 1315N-1, and 1315N), which provides for a unified shader core architecture in which a single core or type or core can execute all types of programmable shader code, including shader program code to implement vertex shaders, fragment shaders, and/or compute shaders. The exact number of shader cores present can vary among embodiments and implementations. Additionally, graphics processor 1410 includes an inter-core task manager 1405, which acts as a thread dispatcher to dispatch execution threads to one or more shader cores 1415A-1415N and a tiling unit 1418 to accelerate tiling operations for tile-based rendering, in which rendering operations for a scene are subdivided in image space, for example to exploit local spatial coherence within a scene or to optimize use of internal caches.

FIG. 15 illustrates a computing device 1500 employing an experience transfer mechanism 1510 according to one embodiment. Computing device 1500 may include an autonomous machine or an artificially intelligent agent, such as a mechanical agent or machine, an electronics agent or machine, a virtual agent or machine, an electro-mechanical agent or machine, etc. Examples of autonomous machines or artificially intelligent agents may include (without limitation) robots, autonomous vehicles (e.g., self-driving cars, self-flying planes, self-sailing boats, etc.), autonomous equipment (self-operating construction vehicles, self-operating medical equipment, etc.), and/or the like. Throughout this document, “computing device” may be interchangeably referred to as “autonomous machine” or “artificially intelligent agent” or simply “robot”.

Computing device 1500 may further include smart wearable devices, virtual reality (V devices, head-mounted display (HMDs), mobile computers, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, laptop computers, desktop computers, server computers, etc., and be similar to or the same as data processing system 100 of FIG. 1 ; accordingly, for brevity, clarity, and ease of understanding, many of the details stated above with reference to FIGS. 1-14 are not further discussed or repeated hereafter. As illustrated, in one embodiment, computing device 1500 is shown as hosting experience transfer mechanism 1510.

As illustrated, in one embodiment, experience transfer mechanism 1510 may be hosted by or part of operating system 1506. In another embodiment, experience transfer mechanism 1510 may be hosted by or part of graphics driver 1516. In yet another embodiment, experience transfer mechanism 1510 may be hosted by or part of firmware of graphics processing unit (“GPU” or “graphics processor”) 1514. In yet another embodiment, experience transfer mechanism 1510 may be hosted by or part of firmware of central processing unit (“CPU” or “application processor”) 1512. In yet another embodiment, experience transfer mechanism 1510 may be hosted by or part of any combination of the components described above, such as a portion of experience transfer mechanism 1510 may be hosted as software logic by graphics driver 1516, while another portion of experience transfer mechanism 1510 may be hosted as a hardware component by graphics processor 1514.

For brevity, clarity, and ease of understanding, throughout the rest of this document, experience transfer mechanism 1510 is shown and discussed as being hosted by operating system 1506; however, embodiments are not limited as such. It is contemplated and to be noted that experience transfer mechanism 1510 or one or more of its components may be implemented as hardware, software, and/or firmware.

Throughout the document, term “user” may be interchangeably referred to as “viewer”, “observer”, “person”, “individual”, “end-user”, and/or the like. It is to be noted that throughout this document, terms like “graphics domain” may be referenced interchangeably with “graphics processing unit”, “graphics processor”, or simply “GPU” and similarly, “CPU domain” or “host domain” may be referenced interchangeably with “computer processing unit”, “application processor”, or simply “CPU”.

Computing device 1500 may include any number and type of communication devices, such as large computing systems, such as server computers, desktop computers, etc., and may further include set-top boxes (e.g., Internet-based cable television set-top boxes, etc.), global positioning system (GPS)-based devices, etc. Computing device 1500 may include mobile computing devices serving as communication devices, such as cellular phones including smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet computers, laptop computers, e-readers, smart televisions, television platforms, wearable devices (e.g., glasses, watches, bracelets, smartcards, jewelry, clothing items, etc.), media players, etc. For example, in one embodiment, computing device 1500 may include a mobile computing device employing a computer platform hosting an integrated circuit (“IC”), such as system on a chip (“SoC” or “SOC”), integrating various hardware and/or software components of computing device 1500 on a single chip.

As illustrated, in one embodiment, computing device 1500 may include any number and type of hardware and/or software components, such as (without limitation) GPU 1514, graphics driver (also referred to as “GPU driver”, “graphics driver logic”, “driver logic”, user-mode driver (UMD), UMD, user-mode driver framework (UMDF), UMDF, or simply “driver”) 1516, CPU 1512, memory 1508, network devices, drivers, or the like, as well as input/output (I/O) sources 1504, such as touchscreens, touch panels, touch pads, virtual or regular keyboards, virtual or regular mice, ports, connectors, etc. Computing device 1500 may include operating system (OS) 1506 serving as an interface between hardware and/or physical resources of the computer device 1500 and a user. It is contemplated that CPU 1512 may include one or more processors, such as processor(s) 102 of FIG. 1 , while GPU 1514 may include one or more graphics processors, such as graphics processor(s) 108 of FIG. 1 .

It is to be noted that terms like “node”, “computing node”, “server”, “server device”, “cloud computer”, “cloud server”, “cloud server computer”, “machine”, “host machine”, “device”, “computing device”, “computer”, “computing system”, and the like, may be used interchangeably throughout this document. It is to be further noted that terms like “application”, “software application”, “program”, “software program”, “package”, “software package”, and the like, may be used interchangeably throughout this document. Also, terms like “job”, “input”, “request”, “message”, and the like, may be used interchangeably throughout this document.

It is contemplated and as further described with reference to FIGS. 1-14 , some processes of the graphics pipeline as described above are implemented in software, while the rest are implemented in hardware. A graphics pipeline may be implemented in a graphics coprocessor design, where CPU 1512 is designed to work with GPU 1514 which may be included in or co-located with CPU 1512. In one embodiment, GPU 1514 may employ any number and type of conventional software and hardware logic to perform the conventional functions relating to graphics rendering as well as novel software and hardware logic to execute any number and type of instructions, such as instructions 121 of FIG. 1 , to perform the various novel functions of experience transfer mechanism 1510 as disclosed throughout this document.

As aforementioned, memory 1508 may include a random access memory (RAM) comprising application database having object information. A memory controller hub, such as memory controller hub 116 of FIG. 1 , may access data in the RAM and forward it to GPU 1514 for graphics pipeline processing. RAM may include double data rate RAM (DDR RAM), extended data output RAM (EDO RAM), etc. CPU 1512 interacts with a hardware graphics pipeline, as illustrated with reference to FIG. 3 , to share graphics pipelining functionality. Processed data is stored in a buffer in the hardware graphics pipeline, and state information is stored in memory 1508. The resulting image is then transferred to I/O sources 1504, such as a display component, such as display device 320 of FIG. 3 , for displaying of the image. It is contemplated that the display device may be of various types, such as Cathode Ray Tube (CRT), Thin Film Transistor (TFT), Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) array, etc., to display information to a user.

Memory 1508 may comprise a pre-allocated region of a buffer (e.g., frame buffer); however, it should be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments are not so limited, and that any memory accessible to the lower graphics pipeline may be used. Computing device 1500 may further include input/output (I/O) control hub (ICH) 130 as referenced in FIG. 1 , one or more I/O sources 1504, etc.

CPU 1512 may include one or more processors to execute instructions in order to perform whatever software routines the computing system implements. The instructions frequently involve some sort of operation performed upon data. Both data and instructions may be stored in system memory 1508 and any associated cache. Cache is typically designed to have shorter latency times than system memory 1508; for example, cache might be integrated onto the same silicon chip(s) as the processor(s) and/or constructed with faster static RAM (SRAM) cells whilst the system memory 1508 might be constructed with slower dynamic RAM (DRAM) cells. By tending to store more frequently used instructions and data in the cache as opposed to the system memory 1508, the overall performance efficiency of computing device 1500 improves. It is contemplated that in some embodiments, GPU 1514 may exist as part of CPU 1512 (such as part of a physical CPU package) in which case, memory 1508 may be shared by CPU 1512 and GPU 1514 or kept separated.

System memory 1508 may be made available to other components within the computing device 1500. For example, any data (e.g., input graphics data) received from various interfaces to the computing device 1500 (e.g., keyboard and mouse, printer port, Local Area Network (LAN) port, modem port, etc.) or retrieved from an internal storage element of the computer device 1500 (e.g., hard disk drive) are often temporarily queued into system memory 1508 prior to their being operated upon by the one or more processor(s) in the implementation of a software program. Similarly, data that a software program determines should be sent from the computing device 1500 to an outside entity through one of the computing system interfaces, or stored into an internal storage element, is often temporarily queued in system memory 1508 prior to its being transmitted or stored.

Further, for example, an ICH, such as ICH 130 of FIG. 1 , may be used for ensuring that such data is properly passed between the system memory 1508 and its appropriate corresponding computing system interface (and internal storage device if the computing system is so designed) and may have bi-directional point-to-point links between itself and the observed I/O sources/devices 1504. Similarly, an MCH, such as MCH 116 of FIG. 1 , may be used for managing the various contending requests for system memory 1508 accesses amongst CPU 1512 and GPU 1514, interfaces and internal storage elements that may proximately arise in time with respect to one another.

I/O sources 1504 may include one or more I/O devices that are implemented for transferring data to and/or from computing device 1500 (e.g., a networking adapter); or, for a large-scale non-volatile storage within computing device 1500 (e.g., hard disk drive). User input device, including alphanumeric and other keys, may be used to communicate information and command selections to GPU 1514. Another type of user input device is cursor control, such as a mouse, a trackball, a touchscreen, a touchpad, or cursor direction keys to communicate direction information and command selections to GPU 1514 and to control cursor movement on the display device. Camera and microphone arrays of computer device 1500 may be employed to observe gestures, record audio and video and to receive and transmit visual and audio commands.

Computing device 1500 may further include network interface(s) to provide access to a network, such as a LAN, a wide area network (WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a personal area network (PAN), Bluetooth, a cloud network, a mobile network (e.g., 3^(rd) Generation (3G), 4^(th) Generation (4G), etc.), an intranet, the Internet, etc. Network interface(s) may include, for example, a wireless network interface having antenna, which may represent one or more antenna(e). Network interface(s) may also include, for example, a wired network interface to communicate with remote devices via network cable, which may be, for example, an Ethernet cable, a coaxial cable, a fiber optic cable, a serial cable, or a parallel cable.

Network interface(s) may provide access to a LAN, for example, by conforming to IEEE 802.11b and/or IEEE 802.11g standards, and/or the wireless network interface may provide access to a personal area network, for example, by conforming to Bluetooth standards. Other wireless network interfaces and/or protocols, including previous and subsequent versions of the standards, may also be supported. In addition to, or instead of, communication via the wireless LAN standards, network interface(s) may provide wireless communication using, for example, Time Division, Multiple Access (TDMA) protocols, Global Systems for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocols, Code Division, Multiple Access (CDMA) protocols, and/or any other type of wireless communications protocols.

Network interface(s) may include one or more communication interfaces, such as a modem, a network interface card, or other well-known interface devices, such as those used for coupling to the Ethernet, token ring, or other types of physical wired or wireless attachments for purposes of providing a communication link to support a LAN or a WAN, for example. In this manner, the computer system may also be coupled to a number of peripheral devices, clients, control surfaces, consoles, or servers via a conventional network infrastructure, including an Intranet or the Internet, for example.

It is to be appreciated that a lesser or more equipped system than the example described above may be preferred for certain implementations. Therefore, the configuration of computing device 1500 may vary from implementation to implementation depending upon numerous factors, such as price constraints, performance requirements, technological improvements, or other circumstances. Examples of the electronic device or computer system 1500 may include (without limitation) an artificial intelligent agent (e.g., robot), a mobile device, a personal digital assistant, a mobile computing device, a smartphone, a cellular telephone, a handset, a one-way pager, a two-way pager, a messaging device, a computer, a personal computer (PC), a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a handheld computer, a tablet computer, a server, a server array or server farm, a web server, a network server, an Internet server, a work station, a mini-computer, a main frame computer, a supercomputer, a network appliance, a web appliance, a distributed computing system, multiprocessor systems, processor-based systems, consumer electronics, programmable consumer electronics, television, digital television, set top box, wireless access point, base station, subscriber station, mobile subscriber center, radio network controller, router, hub, gateway, bridge, switch, machine, or combinations thereof.

Embodiments may be implemented as any or a combination of: one or more microchips or integrated circuits interconnected using a parentboard, hardwired logic, software stored by a memory device and executed by a microprocessor, firmware, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and/or a field programmable gate array (FPGA). The term “logic” may include, by way of example, software or hardware and/or combinations of software and hardware.

Embodiments may be provided, for example, as a computer program product which may include one or more machine-readable media having stored thereon machine-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more machines such as a computer, network of computers, or other electronic devices, may result in the one or more machines carrying out operations in accordance with embodiments described herein, A machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, CD-ROMs (Compact Disc-Read Only Memories), and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memories), EEPROMs (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memories), magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other type of media/machine-readable medium suitable fir storing machine-executable instructions.

Moreover, embodiments may be downloaded as a computer program product, wherein the program may be transferred from a remote computer (e.g., a server) to a requesting computer (e.g., a client) by way of one or more data signals embodied in and/or modulated by a carrier wave or other propagation medium via a communication link (e.g., a modem and/or network connection).

FIG. 16A illustrates experience transfer mechanism 1510 of FIG. 15 according embodiment. For brevity, many of the details already discussed with reference to FIGS. 1-15 are not repeated or discussed hereafter. In one embodiment, experience transfer mechanism 1510 may include any number and type of components, such as (without limitations): detection/collection logic 1601; behavior capture/evaluation logic (“behavior logic”) 1603; learning/training logic 1605; transfer/execution logic 1607; communication/compatibility logic 1609; and integration logic 1611.

Computing device 1500 (e.g., automated machine, such as a robot, a vehicle, etc.) is further shown to be in communication with one or more repositories, datasets, and/or databases, such as database(s) 1630 (e.g., cloud storage, non-cloud storage, etc.), where database(s) 1630 may reside at a local storage or a remote storage over communication medium(s) 1625, such as one or more networks (e.g., cloud network, proximity network, mobile network, intranet, Internet, etc.).

It is contemplated that a software application running at computing device 1500 may be responsible for performing or facilitating performance of any number and type of tasks using one or more components (e.g., GPU 1514, graphics driver 1516, CPU 1512, etc.) of computing device 1500. When performing such tasks, as defined by the software application, one or more components, such as GPU 1514, graphics driver 1516, CPU 1512, etc., may communicate with each other to ensure accurate and timely processing and completion of those tasks.

Typically, human planning, decision making, and behavior depends on information input, such as the information that the human takes in through one or more senses (e.g., sight, touch, taste, etc.) and/or learns through experience over a period of time. For example, with regard to a specific task, if all information input can be recorded to a human and all the actions the person takes, it would be expected that an entire planning policy can be determined about the person.

Embodiments provide for a novel technique, as facilitated by experience transfer mechanism 1510, to allow for training of a neural network model at autonomous machine 1500 to contain human knowledge and a policy search process to conduct this task in human position. For example, in one embodiment, this novel technique provides for properly defining how the relevant information is collected as facilitated by detection/collection logic 1601 and evaluated by behavior capture/evaluation logic 1603, how the neural models are trained as facilitated by learning/training logic 1605, and how the models are applied in robot control as facilitated by transfer/execution logic 1607.

In one embodiment, experience transfer mechanism 1510 provides for collection of the right type and amount of information to then accurately determine the corresponding actions. As illustrated, in some embodiments, integration system 1650 is offered to allow for integration of multiple sub-systems, such as wearable exoskeleton sensing sub-system (“exoskeleton sub-system”) 1640 and expression capturing sub-system (“expression sub-system”) 1645, to sample the relevant information, where this integration is facilitated by integration logic 1611 and any communication between sub-systems 1640 and 1645 and with experience transfer mechanism 1510 is facilitated by communication/compatibility logic 1609.

As further illustrated with respect to FIG. 16B, integration system 1650 may include multiple sensors, such as those connected to or hosted by exoskeleton sub-system 1640, along with other components, such as a sensor signal screening and storage system, to serve as input/output components 1641 to sense and capture as much information as needed or possible relating to user 1660. It is contemplated that exoskeleton sub-system 1640 may be wearable and thus capable of being placed directly on one or more body parts of user 1660, such as head, hands, arms, entire body, etc. The sensor data may be two-fold, such as the input information for actions planning and the consequence of those actions, where this sensor data may be recorded aligned to timestamps to reveal the background planning policy, etc.

Conventionally, it is difficult to build a neural model directly between the input data and the output actions because certain data is not capable of being directly recoded from the body's biological signals, except for certain other data like sensor data from the same sources and the consequences of those actions.

In one embodiment, experience transfer mechanism 1510 includes learning/training logic 1605 for training neural network models in a searching framework to search the optimal actions depending the current sensor input and previous action consequences. Embodiments provide for not only describing a general system design framework, but also concretize it in human-robot emotional and physical interaction tasks.

As is the case with the rest of the information industry, robotics also relies on programming of a robot's tasks based on expected input, such as programming tasks for computing device or autonomous machine 1500 (e.g., robot) based inputs received through one or more I/O sources 1504. Such programming expertise requires a great deal of programming and complex machine instruction sequences to program a machine with human experiences. Further, conventional techniques, such as servo systems, robotic arms, etc., are severely limited to specific tasks, playback modes, requiring labeled data, etc., and fail to provide smart task planning, going beyond existing sensors, etc.

For example, in lead through programming, users have to operate the robotic body to perform tasks. Further, in lead through programming, any action sequences (e.g., robot control commands output (RCo[ ]) or position sequences (e.g., the results of RCo[ ]) are recorded when users operate the robotic body and repeat action sequences or calculate action sequences from position sequences, etc., which leads to complexities and inaccuracies. Further, lead through records a few data points for repeat.

Embodiments provide for allowing robot 1500 to use neural network technology to learn-by-example, as facilitated by the workings of integration system 1650 and experience transfer mechanism 1510, without having to program or needing any computer languages or programming experts. Further, in one embodiment, users do not need to operate the robots, such as autonomous machine 1500, directly; rather, users perform tasks themselves while their behaviors are captured by cameras of I/O components 1641 of exoskeleton sub-system 1640 and/or other cameras in the environment.

In one embodiment, human behaviors, such as behaviors of user 1660, are recoded by exoskeleton sub-system 1640 and cameras of I/O components 1641 to accumulate a large database and to train complex neural network models, while any robotic action sequences are generated online with the robot sensors input (RSi) and robot sensor input for robot action consequences (RSa) as input information. Further, in one embodiment, actions are generated based on a current sensor input to interact with environments rather than just repeat recorded sequences. For example, when the RSi and/or RSa are changing from an interaction task to another, a robot, such as autonomous machine 1500, may change its actions to do a better interaction. In one embodiment, a large amount of data is collected through one or more I/O sources 1504 (e.g., cameras, etc.) and as facilitated by detection/collection logic 1601 that is then used to train neural network models as facilitated by learning/training logic 1605 and subsequently, apply the trained models in a reinforcement learning framework to generate actions online as facilitated by transfer/execution logic 1607.

Communication/compatibility logic 1609 may be used to facilitate dynamic communication and compatibility between computing device/autonomous machine 1500 and any number and type of other computing devices (such as mobile computing device, desktop computer, server computing device, etc.); processing devices or components (such as CPUs, GPUs, etc.); capturing/sensing/detecting devices (such as capturing/sensing components including cameras, depth sensing cameras, camera sensors, red green blue (“RGB” or “rgb”) sensors, microphones, etc.); display devices (such as output components including display screens, display areas, display projectors, etc.); user/context-awareness components and/or identification/verification sensors/devices (such as biometric sensors/detectors, scanners, etc.); database(s) 1630, such as memory or storage devices, databases, and/or data sources (such as data storage devices, hard drives, solid-state drives, hard disks, memory cards or devices, memory circuits, etc.); communication medium(s) 1625, such as one or more communication channels or networks (e.g., Cloud network, the Internet, intranet, cellular network, proximity networks, such as Bluetooth, Bluetooth low energy (BLE), Bluetooth Smart, Wi-Fi proximity, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Near Field Communication (NFC), Body Area Network (BAN), etc.); wireless or wired communications and relevant protocols (e.g., Wi-Fi®, WiMAX, Ethernet, etc.); connectivity and location management techniques; software applications/websites (e.g., social and/or business networking websites, etc., business applications, games and other entertainment applications, etc.); and programming languages, etc., while ensuring compatibility with changing technologies, parameters, protocols, standards, etc.

Throughout this document, terms like “logic”, “component”, “module”, “framework”, “engine”, “mechanism”, and the like, may be referenced interchangeably and include, by way of example, software, hardware, and/or any combination of software and hardware, such as firmware. In one example, “logic” may refer to or include a software component that is capable of working with one or more of an operating system (e.g., operating system 1506), a graphics driver (e.g., graphics driver 1516), etc., of a computing device, such as computing device 1500. In another example, “logic” may refer to or include a hardware component that is capable of being physically installed along with or as part of one or more system hardware elements, such as an application processor (e.g., CPU 1512), a graphics processor (e.g., GPU 1514), etc., of a computing device, such as computing device 1500. In yet another embodiment, “logic” may refer to or include a firmware component that is capable of being part of system firmware, such as firmware of an application processor (e.g., CPU 1512) or a graphics processor (e.g., GPU 1514), etc., of a computing device, such as computing device 1500.

Further, any use of a particular brand, word, term, phrase, name, and/or acronym, such as “GPU”, “GPU domain”, “GPGPU”, “CPU”, “CPU domain”, “graphics driver”, “workload”, “application”, “graphics pipeline”, “pipeline processes”, “robot”, “Euler”, “angle”, “training”, “regression”, “camera”, “human experience”, “transfer of experience”, “exoskeleton sensor sub-system”, “expression capturing sub-system”, “integration system”, “neural network”, “convolutional neural network”, “CNN”, “execution unit”, “EU”, “instruction”, “autonomous machine”, “artificially intelligent agent”, “robot”. “autonomous vehicle”, “autonomous equipment”, “API”, “3D API”, “OpenGL®” “DirectX®” “hardware”, “software”, “agent”, “graphics driver”, “kernel mode graphics driver”, “user-mode driver”, “user-mode driver framework”, “buffer”, “graphics buffer”, “task”, “process”, “operation”, “software application”, “game”, etc., should not be read to limit embodiments to software or devices that carry that label in products or in literature external to this document.

It is contemplated that any number and type of components may be added and/or removed from experience transfer mechanism 1510 to facilitate various embodiments including adding, removing, and/or enhancing certain features. For brevity, clarity, and ease of understanding of experience transfer mechanism 1510, many of the standard and/or known components, such as those of a computing device, are not shown or discussed here. It is contemplated that embodiments, as described herein, are not limited to any particular technology, topology, system, architecture, and/or standard and are dynamic enough to adopt and adapt to any future changes.

FIG. 16B illustrates an architectural placement 1670 employing experience transfer mechanism 1510 of FIG. 15 according to one embodiment. For brevity, many of the details previously discussed with reference to FIGS. 1-16A may not be discussed or repeated hereafter. Further, embodiments are not limited to any particular number, type, setup, or placement of components, such as architectural placement 1670.

As illustrated, robot 1500 may be communicatively coupled to integration system 1650 having an exoskeleton sub-system, such as exoskeleton sub-system 1640 of FIG. 16A, integrated with an expression capturing sub-system, such as expression sub-system 1645 of FIG. 16A, over a network, such as communication medium 1625 of FIG. 16A, where this integration system 1650 is used for data collection for robots, such as robot 1500. For example, the exoskeleton sub-system of integration system 1650 is shown to have any number and type of sensors 1681A, 1681B, 1681C and joints and camera sensors of camera system 1675 corresponding or mapped to any number and type of sensors 1671A, 1671B, 1671C and joints and camera sensors 1673 of robot 1500. Further, for example, architectural placement 1670 may include any number and type of components, such as camera system 1675 having one or more camera sensors, being part of or hosted by integration system 1650 for capturing human actions and expressions. Similarly, architectural placement 1670 may further include display device/screen 1680 for displaying of relevant information being communicated between integration system 1650 and robot 1500.

As further illustrated, robot 1500 may contain any number and type of sensors (e.g., camera sensors 1673, sensor groups 1671A, 1671B, 1671C for actions, etc.) of I/O sources 1504 of FIG. 15 to perform a number of tasks involving sensing, detecting, and collecting of data associated with objects, actions, movements, etc.

Similarly, as illustrated, integration system 1650 may host a number and type of sensors of its own, such as sensor groups 1681A, 1681B, 1681C for actions, etc., to sense user actions and as further described with reference to experience transfer mechanism 1510 of FIG. 15 , where these actions may then be evaluated for user behavior and then used for training neural models and subsequently, applied to robot 1500, as facilitated by behavior logic 1603, learning/training logic 1605, and transfer/execution logic 1607, respectively, of FIG. 16A, such that robot 1500 rimy behave and act like a human using the transferred experiences.

Further, in one embodiment, integration system 1650 may be used to record exoskeleton sensor input (ESi) for task planning and exoskeleton sensor input for action (ESa) for action consequences and visual sensor input for human expression and manage to store them in proper format, there this integration system 1650 is used to collect data for controlling robot 1500. For example, sensors 1671A-C, 1673 installed on or hosted by robot 1500 and those sensors 1681A-C hosted by integration system 1650 may not be identical. If identical, then ESi=RSi; if they are not identical or are not installed with exact correspondence, then ESi=f(RSi) with f being a simple affine mapping function and RSi=f⁻¹ (ESi). For example, robot 1500 and the exoskeleton sub-system of integration system 1650 may have sound sensors installed on their chest the sounds they sense may not be identical with a little transformation ESi=f(RSi) due to the different locations to the sound source, assuming ESi=RSi due to the same sound source.

In some embodiments, such as when relating to certain tasks, any transformations between ESi and RSi may not be ignored, where RSi may be tele-presented or displayed to the user, such as user 1660 of FIG. 16A, at display screen 1680 of I/O sources 1504 of FIG. 15 , and force human sense input (HSi)=ESi=RSi. One good example may be the visual view of robot 1500, such as when robot 1500 is not humanoid and is installed with multiple cameras, where, using display screen 1680 (e.g., visual reality system), the robot view may be tele-presented or displayed as visual reality to the user for human planning.

Further, robot 1500 and exoskeleton sub-system of integration system 1650 may have different degrees-of-freedom (DOFs), where DOF may be corresponding as 1-to-1 or n-to-1/1-to-n. For example, every joint (e.g., knees, elbows, wrists, etc.) in the exoskeleton sub-system may have sensors 1681A-C to detect various actions, such as when corresponding as 1-to-1 ESa=RSa, while, when corresponding as n-to-1/1-to-n ESa=g(RSa) or RSa=g⁻¹ (ESa), where g refers to an affine mapping function. For other movable components that are not directly mapped to human joints, similar action results sensors may be installed to detect the action results; for example, if robot is a wheel type robot, it may move on a wheel that a human exoskeleton sub-system may not emulate. In this case, a body IMU may be installed on the user for robot 1500 and the exoskeleton sub-system of integration system 1650 to detect the movement result.

It is contemplated that human expressions are complex and may not be easily sensed like joint movements and that robot expressions may use different schemes to humans. Accordingly, in one embodiment, camera system 1675 may be installed within a proximate environment or mounted on to the exoskeleton sub-system of integration system 1650 to help capture human face expressions of the user, while using an encoding scheme to encode these human expressions to codes and subsequently, using the codes to drive robot 1500 to decode similar expressions. Further, by employing this expression coding and decoding system, the current human sense input for action consequences (HSa)=ESa=RSa=RCo may be assumed to equal the expression code, as follows:

Time stamp ESi ESa T0 ESi[0] ESa[0] T1 ESi[1] ESa[1] T2 ESi[2] ESa[2]

FIG. 17 illustrates a conventional transaction sequence 1700 having a direct programming method for controlling robots according to one embodiment. As illustrated, robot control flow includes transaction sequences, where artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm 1705 is shown as using a robot's sensors to sample the environment and any relevant robot information for a task (e.g., RSi) such that this information, RSi, is fed into control algorithm 1705 by sensors for decision-making 1703 to calculate control command sequences (e.g., RCo) that are then provided to robot controlled by AI at block 1707. The robot executes these control commands into actions at block 1709 and then generates consequences to the environment and itself at block 1711, where these action consequences are sensed by the robot sensors and sent to control algorithm 1705 to generate further control commands. It is contemplated that tasks related result information of block 1709 correspond to task related information for planning of block 1701. For a well-designed robot, RSa may be calculated from RCo, when given the robot's mechanical parameters and driving models, and in most cases, RSa=RCo; for example, the action command moves east and the action sequence also moves east. It is to be noted how RSi and RSa are used to calculate the next RCo.

FIG. 18 illustrates a transaction sequence 1800 employing a robot control system with human-in-the-loop according to one embodiment. For brevity, many of the details previously discussed with reference to FIGS. 1-17 may not be discussed or repeated hereafter. Transaction sequence 1800 may be performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, etc.), software (such as instructions run on a processing device), or a combination thereof, as facilitated by experience transfer mechanism 1510 of FIG. 15 . The processes of transaction sequence 1800 are illustrated in linear sequences for brevity and clarity in presentation; however, it is contemplated that any number of them can be performed in parallel, asynchronously, or in different orders.

One of the differences between the conventional robot directly programming methods, like the one illustrated with respect to FIG. 17 , and the novel technique of autonomous machines (e.g., robots) learning abilities as obtained from human behavior, as facilitated by experience transfer mechanism 1510 of FIG. 15 , is that in the conventional robot directly programming methods, domain experts and software programmers are necessitated to calculate RCo from RSi and RSa based on a human's background knowledge as illustrated with respect to FIG. 17 . Further, in conventional techniques, these experts are required to translate their knowledge and their understanding of the application into instruction sequences to control the robots, which is inefficient, resource-consuming, and error-prone.

In contrast, FIG. 18 provides for a novel technique for enabling an autonomous machine to learn the instruction sequences from and based on human behaviors. Ordinary humans, not the programming experts, etc., perform their intentions by demonstrating their own behaviors and the autonomous machines then train their neural network models and apply these models in a predefined application framework to mimic the human behaviors with the same intentions as those of the humans.

As illustrated, FIG. 18 provides for a transaction sequence 1800 that offers an autonomous machine control system with human-in-the-loop based on one or more of (without limitations): human sense input (HSi) is provided for a task; human control commands (HCo) relating to human movements are used for exoskeleton and human expressions captured by visual system in combination with an integration system, such as integration system 1650 of FIG. 16A; human sense input (Hsa) for action consequences; ESi for task planning; ESa for action consequences and visual sensor input for human expression; RSi; RCo; and RSa for robot action consequences.

In the illustrated embodiment, transaction sequence 1800 shows a robot control system with human-in-the-loop, where exoskeleton sub-system 1640 captures human actions of a user (human), where exoskeleton sub-system 1640 is integrated or coupled with a visual expression capturing system that is mounted on an exoskeleton on the user's body or installed within a proximate environment or worn on the user's head to capture expression of emotions. For example, for a target task, human 1660 can sense the environmental information through one or more of their senses or sense organs (e.g., HSi), such as eyes, ears, tongues, fingers, noses, etc., and then, based on that environmental information, human 1660 takes actions that generates the desired consequences and expresses emotions. Human sense organs are also capable of sensing consequences (e.g., HSa) of the actions in aiding human 1660 to adjust their movements and expressions based on the sensed consequences.

In one embodiment, exoskeleton sub-system 1640 with industrial sensors and a visual capture system to record any task related input (e.g., ESi), and human expressions and actions (e.g., ESa). As illustrated, ESi and ESa are stored at database 1630 through sensors for planning 1807 and sensors for side-effect of actions 1809, respectively, where ESi is obtained from or relates to task-related information for planning 1801 being sensed, as Hsi, by human 1660, while ESa is obtained from or relates to task-related result information 1803 being sensed, as HSa, by human 1660. Further, data from exoskeleton sensors and expression capturing are stored at database 1630 with a timestamp at each sampling interval chosen or determined according to the task.

The relation between ESi and ESa contains the human knowledge for the target tasks and in one embodiment, neural network trainer 1815, as facilitated by learning/training logic 1605 of FIG. 16A, is used to train neural networks to extract any knowledge behind ESi and ESa and then use the extracted knowledge to help calculate RCo from RSi and RSa, where RSi is obtained through sensors for decision-making 1811 and communicated on to AI algorithm 1817, while RSa is obtained through sensors for side-effect of actions 1813 and communicated on to AI algorithm 1817, where RSi and RSa are used to calculate RCo. In one embodiment, RCo may then be communicated by AI algorithm 1817 to autonomous machine 1500, such as a robot controlled by AI leading, up to actions associated with tasks task-related result info 1805.

Since human expressions are complex and not easily sensed like joint movements, in one embodiment, a camera system, such as camera system 1675 of FIG. 16B, may be installed in the environment or mounted on to the exoskeleton sub-system to, for example, capture facial expressions of human 1660, while using an encoding scheme to encode any human expressions to codes such that these codes may then be used to drive autonomous machine/robot 1500 to decode similar expressions.

For example, referring back to the processes and components of transaction sequence 1800, sensors for decision-making 1811 may serve a similar purpose as sensors for planning 1807; however, sensors for decision-making 1811 may include a group of sensors mounted on the body of robot 1500. For example, sensors for decision-making 1811 may refer to sensors of an Intel® RealSense™ camera mounted on the head of robot 1500. As illustrated, robot 1500 is an autonomous machine that is, for example, controlled by RCo generated by AI algorithm 1817. Further, sensors for side-effect of actions 1813 may include a group of sensors to capture the body movements of robot 1500 along with any tools and objects movement sequences in the environment, where, for example, sensors for side-effect of actions 1813 may include motion sensors in robot parts and joints.

In one embodiment, task-related result information 1805 may be similar to task-related result information 1803, where both represent the overall environment in which robot 1500 takes actions. In the illustrated embodiment, AI algorithm 1817 may be applied to neural network models in a reinforcement learning framework to generate robot control signals, RCo, from RSi and RSa. As illustrated, neural network trainer 1815 may be used to train neural network models as described throughout this document. As is further illustrated, neural network trainer 1815 receives data from database 1630 having stored ESi and ESa data in time sequences.

In the illustrated embodiment, task-related information for planning 1801 includes task-related environment input information for task planning, where, for example, behavior objectives, such as human expressions, and body gestures of human 1660 may be task-related input information for interactions (such as teacher's interactions with others). Similarly, task-related result information 1803 may include task-related environment output information, where human expressions (such as a teacher's expressions), body gestures, and environmental changes (such as a sofa, table, cup, door, movements, etc.) are task-related output information from human interactions of human 1660 (such as a teacher's interactions).

In one embodiment, human 1660 may include any number and type of persons, users, etc. For example, human 1660 may be someone with a defined profession, gender, etc., such as female teacher, to accurately observe and compute various behaviors so that they may then be used to train neural models by neural network trainer 1815 and subsequently, any relevant experiences are transferred on onto robot 1500. For example, human 1660 being a female teacher may observe an object's expressions and gestures and then take reasonable actions (HCo) to interact with the object, while observing her own actions and their consequences (HSa) to then be able to adjust her actions, as desired or necessitated.

Since, conventional techniques do not provide for accurately recording all the inputs and outputs of human 1660, one or more of sensors for planning 1807, exoskeleton sub-system 1640, and sensors for side-effect of actions 1809 may be used to capture the necessary information as provided in task-related information for planning 1801 and task-related result information 1803. As aforementioned, sensors for planning 1807 may include Intel® RealSense™ cameras or other cameras mounted on or hosted by exoskeleton sub-system 1640 and in the environment to capture the object's expression and gestures, while sensors for planning 1807 generate ESi. For example, exoskeleton sub-system 1640 may be used to capture the female teacher's movements and gestures, while sensors for side-effect of actions 1809 may include sensors mounted on or hosted by exoskeleton sub-system 1640 and/or cameras in environment to capture the teacher's movements and expressions and tools movements around her, where sensors for side-effect of actions 1809 may be used to generate ESa.

FIG. 19 illustrates an autonomous machine-learning platform 1900 of human behavior interaction for transferring human interaction skills to the autonomous machine according to one embodiment. For brevity, many of the details previously discussed with reference to FIGS. 1-18 may not be discussed or repeated hereafter. Embodiments are not limited to any particular number and type of components or processes and their setup, placement, or platform, such as platform 1900. Any processing associated with platform 1900 may be performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, etc.), software (such as instructions run on a processing device), or a combination thereof, as facilitated by experience transfer mechanism 1510 of FIG. 15 . The processes associated with platform 1900 are illustrated in linear sequences for brevity and clarity in presentation; however, it is contemplated that any number of them can be performed in parallel, asynchronously, or in different orders.

In the illustrated embodiment, platform 1900 provides three sub-platforms for interactions, such as human demonstration 1901, learning platform 1903, and robot learned behavior 1905. As illustrated here and discussed with reference to FIG. 18 and elsewhere in this document, human demonstration 1901 may include two humans, such as behavior teacher 1911 and behavior objective 1913A. In one embodiment, behavior teacher 1911 is shown as receiving or sensing inputs though one or more sensors or cameras, such as Intel® RealSense™ camera, etc. In response and with regard to behavior objective 1913A, any number and type of behavior patterns are captured through one or more of exoskeleton sub-system, expression capturing sub-system, motion sensors, motion marks, etc.

In one embodiment, platform 1900 continues on to another sub-platform, such as learning platform 1903, where this learning platform 1903 provides for collecting inputs, such as what humans perceived, and how humans behaved, based on inputs and behaviors from an earlier sub-platform for human demonstration 1901. In one embodiment, the findings at learning platform 1903 may be used to train one or more neural models relating to an autonomous machine e.g., robot) based on the learned information and in turn, the human experience is transferred on to the autonomous machine.

Continuing with the process, platform 1900 proceeds to another sub-platform, such as robot learned behavior 1905, where the behavior of the autonomous machine is made to mimic or reflect the learned behavior of humans 1911 and 1913A. For example, when dealing or communicating with behavior model 1913B, which is the same as or similar to behavior model 1913A, the autonomous machine's behavior model 1915 may be the same as or similar to that of behavior teacher 1911. Stated differently, in one embodiment, in similar situations, an autonomous machine, such as a robot, may be trained to behave in the same or similar manner as the human whose behavior traits were used to train the autonomous machine. In the illustrated embodiment, the same inputs are provided to generate behavior model 1915 to offer the desired output relating to behavior objective 1913B.

FIG. 20 illustrates a neural network model 2000 according to one embodiment. For brevity, many of the details previously discussed with reference to FIGS. 1-19 may not be discussed or repeated hereafter. Any processes relating to neural network model 2000 may be performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, etc.), software (such as instructions run on a processing device), or a combination thereof, as facilitated by experience transfer mechanism 1510 of FIG. 15 . The processes associated with neural network model 2000 are illustrated in linear sequences for brevity and clarity in presentation; however, it is contemplated that any number of them can be performed in parallel, asynchronously, or in different orders.

It is contemplated that this neural network model 2000 is a simplified version of a typical neural network model provided for brevity and clarity and that an actual model may have any number and type of layers, etc. In the illustrated embodiment, neural network model 2000 provides for input and training of relationship between window 2001 of ESi and ESa. The illustrated neural network model 2000 is input with window 2001 of ESi and ESa, and final output 2015 is merely a single bit information, signifying whether this sequence is meaningful (e.g., right sequence observed from human) or meaningless (e.g., randomly generated and sequenced).

As illustrated, in one embodiment, neural network model 2000 may follow or have a pattern, ranging from window 2001 to convolutional layers 2003 to full connection layers 2005 to sigmoid layer 2007 to loss layer 2009, while predicting label 2011 using label ground truth 2013 for providing final output 2015.

For example, there may be two kinds of data and related labels. One is right sequence observed from human, where for a timing window, the ESi and ESa sequence is taken out from the training database in the original sequences, and this window 2001 of ESi and ESa are labeled by 1, indicating valid data samples as shown in label ground truth 2013. The other refers to randomly-generated sequences that are nonsense behaviors, such as randomly-generated valid ESi and ESa values or randomly-shuffled sequences taken from one or more databases, where the randomly-generated sequences are labeled by 0, indicating nonsense data samples as shown in label ground truth 2013.

In summary, this process generates neural network (NN) model 2000 that is capable of asserting a valid human behavior of a sequence of ESi and ESa, NN(ESi[0−T+1:0], ESa[0−T+1:0]) ∈[0, 1], with 1 being valid, 0 being invalid, and other value between 0 and 1 being the possibility of being valid.

In one embodiment, autonomous machine control (or simply “robot control”) may be based on calculating RCo from RSi and RSa and described with reference to FIG. 20 , how a right move RCo is searched with the help of trained neural network 2000. For example, possible motion's validity may be tested by NN(ESi, ESa)=NN(f(RSi), g(RSa))=NN(f(RSi), g(h⁻¹(RCo))), where f, g, h are mapping functions among motion commands and sensor data according to a robot model and based on this prediction, as further illustrated with respect to FIG. 21 , an algorithm framework may be used to search the optimal actions based on which several action-search algorithms may be designed and generated. As further illustrated with reference to FIGS. 21A-21B, for example:

-   -   1. In current time interval, given ESi[0−T:0−1] and         ESa[0−T:0−1], given current RSi[0]     -   2. Calculate ESi[0]=f(RSi[0]), get ESi[0−T+1:0]     -   3. Generate n RCo[0] samples based on some rule A, for each         RCo[0]:         calculate RSa[0]=h⁻¹ (RCo[0]),         calculate ESa[0]=g(RSa[0])         get ESa[0−T+1:0]         Evaluate p=NN(ESi[0−T+1:0], ESa[0−T+1:0])     -   5. if p_(i), i∈[0, 1, . . . , n−1] NOT stratify condition B,         -   then update rule A according to p_(i), i∈[0, 1, . . . ,             n−1], go to step 3.     -   else         -   then select the RCo[0] with largest p as the optimal action.

FIG. 21A illustrates a method 2100 for transferring experience from humans to autonomous machines according to one embodiment. For brevity, many of the details previously discussed with reference to FIGS. 1-20 may not be discussed or repeated hereafter. Method 2100 may be performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, etc.), software (such as instructions run on a processing device), or a combination thereof, as facilitated by experience transfer mechanism 1510 of FIG. 15 . The processes of method 2100 are illustrated in linear sequences for brevity and clarity in presentation; however, it is contemplated that any number of them can be performed in parallel, asynchronously, or in different orders.

Method 2100 may start at block 2101 and continues with inputting of current robot (autonomous machine) sensor inputs at block 2103. At block 2105, ESi_(t) is calculated, followed by block 2107 where a determination is made as to whether t>T. If yes, method 2100 continues at block 2109 with generation of statistical properties for ESa_(t) as Rule A. At block 2111, the i^(th) possible ESa_(ti) is generated based on Rule A, while at block 2113, both ESi and ESa are defined. At block 2115, a trained neural network model is applied as P_(i), followed by block 2117 where another determination is made as to whether i>n. If not, method 2100 continues with block 2111; however, if yes, a current group ESa_(ti) is checked based on the value of P at block 2119.

In one embodiment, at block 2121, yet another determination is made as to whether P satisfies criteria and if not, the statistical properties of ESa_(t) as Rule A are adjusted in accordance with the value of P, at block 2125, and method 2100 may then continue with block 2111. If, however, P satisfies criteria at block 2121, then method 2100 continues with selection of the best ESa_(t) at block 2123 and subsequently, RCo_(t) is calculated at block 2129, robot control command, RCo_(t), is then outputted at block 2131, current robot action sensor, RSa_(t), is inputted at block 2133, and ESa_(t) is calculated at block 2135.

At block 2137, yet another determination is made as to whether the robot task is finished. If yes, method 2100 terminates at block 2139; however, if not, method 2100 continues at block 2103. Referring back to block 2107, if the answer is no, then method 2100 continues at block 2127 with the setting of ESa_(t) to 0 and subsequently, method 2100 continues with block 2129.

FIG. 21B illustrates a method 2150 for transferring experience from humans to autonomous machines according to one embodiment. For brevity, many of the details previously discussed with reference to FIGS. 1-21A may not be discussed or repeated hereafter. Method 2100 may be performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, etc.), software (such as instructions run on a processing device), or a combination thereof, as facilitated by experience transfer mechanism 1510 of FIG. 15 . The processes of method 2150 are illustrated in linear sequences for brevity and clarity in presentation; however, it is contemplated that any number of them can be performed in parallel, asynchronously, or in different orders.

It is to be noted that method 2150 of FIG. 21B shows a variance of method 2100 of FIG. 21A in that RCo, and not just ESa, may be generated. For example, with regard to Rule A of FIG. 21A, it is feasible to generate statistical properties for RCo as Rule A and generate random RCo based on Rule A and further, calculate ESa from RCo and then evaluate the possibilities with NN models.

Method 2150 may start at block 2151 and continues with inputting of current robot (autonomous machine) sensor inputs at block 2153. At block 2155, ESi_(t) is calculated, followed by block 2157 where a determination is made as to whether t>T. If yes, method 2150 continues at block 2159 with generation of statistical properties for RCo_(t) as Rule A. At block 2161, the i^(th) possible RCo_(t) is generated based on Rule A, while at block 2163, both ESi and ESa are defined. At block 2165, a trained neural network model is applied as P_(i), followed by block 2167 where another determination is made as to whether i>n. If not, method 2150 continues with block 2161; however, if yes, a current group ESa_(ti) is checked based on the value of P at block 2169.

In one embodiment, at block 2171, yet another determination is made as to whether P satisfies criteria and if not, the statistical properties of ESa_(t) as Rule A are adjusted in accordance with the value of P, at block 2175, and method 2150 may then continue with block 2161. If, however, P satisfies criteria at block 2171, then method 2100 continues with selection of the best RCo_(t) at block 2173 and subsequently outputted at block 2181, while current robot action sensor, RSa_(t), is inputted at block 2183, and ESa_(t) is calculated at block 2185.

At block 2187, yet another determination is made as to whether the robot task is finished. If yes, method 2150 terminates at block 2189; however, if not, method 2150 continues at block 2153. Referring back to block 2157, if the answer is no, then method 2150 continues at block 2177 with the setting of ESa_(t) to 0 and subsequently, method 2150 continues with calculation of RCo_(t) at block 2179.

References to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, “example embodiment”, “various embodiments”, etc., indicate that the embodiment(s) so described may include particular features, structures, or characteristics, but not every embodiment necessarily includes the particular features, structures, or characteristics. Further, some embodiments may have some, all, or none of the features described for other embodiments.

In the foregoing specification, embodiments have been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of embodiments as set forth in the appended claims. The Specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

In the following description and claims, the term “coupled” along with its derivatives, may be used. “Coupled” is used to indicate that two or more elements co-operate or interact with each other, but they may or may not have intervening physical or electrical components between them.

As used in the claims, unless otherwise specified the use of the ordinal adjectives “first”, “second”, “third”, etc., to describe a common element, merely indicate that different instances of like elements are being referred to, and are not intended to imply that the elements so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

The following clauses and/or examples pertain to further embodiments or examples. Specifics in the examples may be used anywhere in one or more embodiments. The various features of the different embodiments or examples may be variously combined with some features included and others excluded to suit a variety of different applications. Examples may include subject matter such as a method, means for performing acts of the method, at least one machine-readable medium including instructions that, when performed by a machine cause the machine to performs acts of the method, or of an apparatus or system for facilitating hybrid communication according to embodiments and examples described herein.

Some embodiments pertain to Example 1 that includes an apparatus to facilitate transferring of human experiences to autonomous machines, the apparatus comprising: one or more sensors to sense one or more inputs relating to a user; behavior capture/evaluation logic to evaluate the one or more inputs to capture one or more behavior traits of the user; learning/training logic to train a neural network model based on the one or more behavior traits; and transfer/execution logic to apply the trained neural network model to the apparatus to facilitate the apparatus to adopt the one or more behavior traits to behave as the user.

Example 2 includes the subject matter of Example 1, further comprising detection/collection logic to collect the one or more inputs include at least one of user perception inputs and user behavior inputs, wherein the user perception inputs comprise one or more of body positions, perception expressions, movements, sounds or voices, identifications, genders, and categories, wherein the learning/training logic to train the neural network model in one or more of expressions, motions, and sequences based on the user perception inputs.

Example 3 includes the subject matter of Example 2, wherein the user behavior inputs comprise one or more of behavior expressions, head and body gestures, body motions, and speeches, wherein the learning/training logic to train the neural network model in one or more of the expressions, the motions, and the sequences based on the user behavior inputs.

Example 4 includes the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the one or more sensors are coupled to one or more of cameras hosted by at least one of the apparatus and an integration system coupled to the apparatus over a communication medium, wherein the integration system comprises an exoskeleton sensing sub-system and an expression capturing sub-system, wherein the apparatus comprises an autonomous machine including one or more of a robot, a self-driving vehicle, a self-flying vehicle, a self-floating vehicle, and a self-operating device, wherein the communication medium comprises one or more of a cloud network, a proximity network, and the Internet.

Example 5 includes the subject matter of Example 1, further comprising: integration logic to facilitate the integration system by integrating the exoskeleton sensing sub-system with the expression capturing sub-system; and communication/compatibility logic to facilitate compatibility and communication between at least two or more of the apparatus, the exoskeleton sensing sub-system, and the expression capturing sub-system.

Example 6 includes the subject matter of Example 1, wherein applying of trained neural network model to the apparatus comprises transferring user experiences determined based on at least one of the user perception inputs and user behavior inputs to the apparatus such that the apparatus behaves as the user.

Example 7 includes the subject matter of Example 1, wherein evaluating the one or more inputs comprises determining the one or more behavior traits of the user based on one or more environments, wherein an input relating to the user in a first environment is interpreted as a first behavior trait, wherein the input relating to the user in a second environment is interpreted as the second behavior trait that is distinct from the first behavior trait, wherein the learning/training logic trains the neural network model based on relevance of the one or more environments.

Some embodiments pertain to Example 8 that includes a method for facilitating transferring of human experiences to autonomous machines, the method comprising: sensing, by one or more sensors, one or more inputs relating to a user; evaluating the one or more inputs to capture one or more behavior traits of the user; training a neural network model based on the one or more behavior traits; and applying the trained neural network model to a computing device to facilitate the computing device to adopt the one or more behavior traits to behave as the user.

Example 9 includes the subject matter of Example 8, further comprising collecting the one or more inputs include at least one of user perception inputs and user behavior inputs, wherein the user perception inputs comprise one or more of body positions, perception expressions, movements, sounds or voices, identifications, genders, and categories, wherein training of the neural network model in one or more of expressions, motions, and sequences based on the user perception inputs.

Example 10 includes the subject matter of Example 9, wherein the user behavior inputs comprise one or more of behavior expressions, head and body gestures, body motions, and speeches, wherein training of the neural network model is performed in one or more of the expressions, the motions, and the sequences based on the user behavior inputs.

Example 11 includes the subject matter of Example 8, wherein the one or more sensors are coupled to one or more of cameras hosted by at least one of the computing device and an integration system coupled to the computing device over a communication medium, wherein the integration system comprises an exoskeleton sensing sub-system and an expression capturing sub-system, wherein the computing device comprises an autonomous machine including one or more of a robot, a self-driving vehicle, a self-flying vehicle, a self-floating vehicle, and a self-operating device, wherein the communication medium comprises one or more of a cloud network, a proximity network, and the Internet.

Example 12 includes the subject matter of Example 8, further comprising: facilitating the integration system by integrating the exoskeleton sensing sub-system with the expression capturing sub-system; and facilitating compatibility and communication between at least two or more of the computing device, the exoskeleton sensing sub-system, and the expression capturing sub-system.

Example 13 includes the subject matter of Example 8, wherein applying of the trained neural network model to the computing device comprises transferring user experiences determined based on at least one of the user perception inputs and user behavior inputs to the computing device such that the computing device behaves as the user.

Example 14 includes the subject matter of Example 8, wherein evaluating the one or more inputs comprises determining the one or more behavior traits of the user based on one or more environments, wherein an input relating to the user in a first environment is interpreted as a first behavior trait, wherein the input relating to the user in a second environment is interpreted as the second behavior trait that is distinct from the first behavior trait, wherein training of the neural network model is based on relevance of the one or more environments.

Some embodiments pertain to Example 15 includes a system comprising a computing device including a storage device and a processing device coupled to the storage device, the processing device to: sense, by one or more sensors, one or more inputs relating to a user; evaluate the one or more inputs to capture one or more behavior traits of the user; train a neural network model based on the one or more behavior traits; and apply the trained neural network model to the computing device to facilitate the computing device to adopt the one or more behavior traits to behave as the user.

Example 16 includes the subject matter of Example 15, wherein the processing device to collect the one or more inputs include at least one of user perception inputs and user behavior inputs, wherein the user perception inputs comprise one or more of body positions, perception expressions, movements, sounds or voices, identifications, genders, and categories, wherein training of the neural network model in one or more of expressions, motions, and sequences based on the user perception inputs.

Example 17 includes the subject matter of Example 16, wherein the user behavior inputs comprise one or more of behavior expressions, head and body gestures, body motions, and speeches, wherein training of the neural network model is performed in one or more of the expressions, the motions, and the sequences based on the user behavior inputs.

Example 18 includes the subject matter of Example 15, wherein the one or more sensors are coupled to one or more of cameras hosted by at least one of the computing device and an integration system coupled to the computing device over a communication medium, wherein the integration system comprises an exoskeleton sensing sub-system and an expression capturing sub-system, wherein the computing device comprises an autonomous machine including one or more of a robot, a self-driving vehicle, a self-flying vehicle, a self-floating vehicle, and a self-operating device, wherein the communication medium comprises one or more of a cloud network, a proximity network, and the Internet.

Example 19 includes the subject matter of Example 15, wherein the processing device to: facilitate the integration system by integrating the exoskeleton sensing sub-system with the expression capturing sub-system; and facilitate compatibility and communication between at least two or more of the computing device, the exoskeleton sensing sub-system, and the expression capturing sub-system.

Example 20 includes the subject matter of Example 15, wherein applying of the trained neural network model to the computing device comprises transferring user experiences determined based on at least one of the user perception inputs and user behavior inputs to the computing device such that the computing device behaves as the user.

Example 21 includes the subject matter of Example 15, wherein evaluating the one or more inputs comprises determining the one or more behavior traits of the user based on one or more environments, wherein an input relating to the user in a first environment is interpreted as a first behavior trait, wherein the input relating to the user in a second environment is interpreted as the second behavior trait that is distinct from the first behavior trait, wherein training of the neural network model is based on relevance of the one or more environments.

Some embodiments pertain to Example 22 includes an apparatus comprising: means for sensing, by one or more sensors, one or more inputs relating to a user; means for evaluating the one or more inputs to capture one or more behavior traits of the user; means for training a neural network model based on the one or more behavior traits; and means for applying the trained neural network model to the apparatus to facilitate the apparatus to adopt the one or more behavior traits to behave as the user.

Example 23 includes the subject matter of Example 22, further comprising means for collecting the one or more inputs include at least one of user perception inputs and user behavior inputs, wherein the user perception inputs comprise one or more of body positions, perception expressions, movements, sounds or voices, identifications, genders, and categories, wherein training of the neural network model in one or more of expressions, motions, and sequences based on the user perception inputs.

Example 24 includes the subject matter of Example 23, wherein the user behavior inputs comprise one or more of behavior expressions, head and body gestures, body motions, and speeches, wherein training of the neural network model is performed in one or more of the expressions, the motions, and the sequences based on the user behavior inputs.

Example 25 includes the subject matter of Example 22, wherein the one or more sensors are coupled to one or more of cameras hosted by at least one of the apparatus and an integration system coupled to the apparatus over a communication medium, wherein the integration system comprises an exoskeleton sensing sub-system and an expression capturing sub-system, wherein the apparatus comprises an autonomous machine including one or more of a robot, a self-driving vehicle, a self-flying vehicle, a self-floating vehicle, and a self-operating device, wherein the communication medium comprises one or more of a cloud network, a proximity network, and the Internet.

Example 26 includes the subject matter of Example further comprising: means for facilitating the integration system by integrating the exoskeleton sensing sub-system with the expression capturing sub-system; and means for facilitating compatibility and communication between at least two or more of the apparatus, the exoskeleton sensing sub-system, and the expression capturing sub-system.

Example 27 includes the subject matter of Example 22, wherein the means for applying of the trained neural network model to the apparatus comprises means for transferring user experiences determined based on at least one of the user perception inputs and user behavior inputs to the apparatus such that the apparatus behaves as the user.

Example 28 includes the subject matter of Example 22, wherein the means for evaluating the one or more inputs comprises means for determining the one or more behavior traits of the user based on one or more environments, wherein an input relating to the user in a first environment is interpreted as a first behavior trait, wherein the input relating to the user in a second environment is interpreted as the second behavior trait that is distinct from the first behavior trait, wherein training of the neural network model is based on relevance of the one or more environments.

Example 29 includes at least one non-transitory or tangible machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions, when executed on a computing device, to implement or perform a method as claimed in any of claims or examples 8-14.

Example 30 includes at least one machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions, when executed on a computing device, to implement or perform a method as claimed in any of claims or examples 8-14.

Example 31 includes a system comprising a mechanism to implementor perform a method as claimed in any of claims or examples 8-14.

Example 32 includes an apparatus comprising means for performing a method as claimed in any of claims or examples 8-14.

Example 33 includes a computing device arranged to implement or perform a method as claimed in any of claims or examples 8-14.

Example 34 includes a communications device arranged to implement or perform a method as claimed in any of claims or examples 8-14.

Example 35 includes at least one machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions, when executed on a computing device, to implement or perform a method or realize an apparatus as claimed in any preceding claims.

Example 36 includes at least one non-transitory or tangible machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions, when executed on a computing device, to implement or perform a method or realize an apparatus as claimed in any preceding claims.

Example 37 includes a system comprising a mechanism to implement or perform a method or realize an apparatus as claimed in any preceding claims.

Example 38 includes an apparatus comprising means to perform a method as claimed in any preceding claims.

Example 39 includes a computing device arranged to implement or perform a method or realize an apparatus as claimed in any preceding claims.

Example 40 includes a communications device arranged to implement or perform a method or realize an apparatus as claimed in any preceding claims.

The drawings and the forgoing description give examples of embodiments. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that one or more of the described elements may well be combined into a single functional element. Alternatively, certain elements may be split into multiple functional elements. Elements from one embodiment may be added to another embodiment. For example, orders of processes described herein may be changed and are not limited to the manner described herein. Moreover, the actions of any flow diagram need not be implemented in the order shown; nor do all of the acts necessarily need to be performed. Also, those acts that are not dependent on other acts may be performed in parallel with the other acts. The scope of embodiments is by no means limited by these specific examples. Numerous variations, whether explicitly given in the specification or not, such as differences in structure, dimension, and use of material, are possible. The scope of embodiments is at least as broad as given by the following claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus to facilitate transferring of human experiences to an autonomous machine, the apparatus comprising: memory to store one or more inputs relating to a user received from one or more sensors; and a processor to: evaluate the one or more inputs from the one or more sensors to capture one or more behavior traits of a user; and apply a trained neural network model to facilitate the autonomous machine to adopt the one or more behavior traits to behave as the user, including to: generate a plurality of control commands to select from for the autonomous machine, calculate human expressions or actions for each of the generated plurality of control commands, evaluate the calculated human expressions or actions using the trained neural network model, select one of the plurality of control commands based on the evaluation of the calculated human expressions or actions and based on the one or more inputs, and provide the selected control command to the autonomous machine for execution.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the one or more inputs include at least one of user perception inputs and user behavior inputs; wherein the user perception inputs comprise one or more of: body positions, perception expressions, movements, sounds or voices, identifications, genders, and categories; and wherein the processor is to train the neural network model in one or more of: expressions, motions, and sequences based on the user perception inputs.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein: the user behavior inputs comprise one or more of: behavior expressions, head and body gestures, body motions, and speeches; and wherein the processor is to train the neural network model in one or more of: the expressions, the motions, and the sequences based on the user behavior inputs.
 4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein: application of the trained neural network model comprises: a transfer of user experiences determined based on at least one of the user perception inputs and user behavior inputs to the autonomous machine such that the autonomous machine behaves as the user.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the one or more sensors are coupled to one or more of cameras hosted by at least one of the apparatus and an integration system coupled to the apparatus over a communication medium; wherein the integration system comprises an exoskeleton sensing sub-system and an expression capturing sub-system; wherein the apparatus comprises the autonomous machine, the autonomous machine including one or more of: a robot, a self-driving vehicle, a self-flying vehicle, a self-floating vehicle, and a self-operating device; and wherein the communication medium comprises one or more of a cloud network, a proximity network, and the Internet.
 6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the processor is to: facilitate the integration system via integration of the exoskeleton sensing sub-system with the expression capturing sub-system; and facilitate compatibility and communication between at least two or more of the apparatus, the exoskeleton sensing sub-system, and the expression capturing sub-system.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: evaluation of the one or more inputs comprises a determination of the one or more behavior traits of the user based on one or more environments, wherein an input relating to the user in a first environment is interpreted as a first behavior trait, wherein the input relating to the user in a second environment is interpreted as a second behavior trait that is distinct from the first behavior trait, and wherein the processor is to train the neural network model based on relevance of the one or more environments.
 8. A method for facilitating transferring of human experiences to an autonomous machine, the method comprising: sensing, by one or more sensors, one or more inputs relating to a user; evaluating the one or more inputs to capture one or more behavior traits of the user; training a neural network model based on the one or more behavior traits; and applying, with a computing device, the trained neural network model to facilitate the autonomous machine to adopt the one or more behavior traits to behave as the user, including: generating a plurality of control commands to select from for the autonomous machine, calculating human expressions or actions for each of the generated plurality of control commands, evaluating the calculated human expressions or actions using the trained neural network model, selecting one of the plurality of control commands based on the evaluation of the calculated human expressions or actions and based on the one or more inputs, and providing the selected control command to the autonomous machine for execution.
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: collecting the one or more inputs including at least one of user perception inputs and user behavior inputs; wherein the user perception inputs comprise one or more of: body positions, perception expressions, movements, sounds or voices, identifications, genders, and categories; and wherein training of the neural network model includes training in one or more of: expressions, motions, and sequences based on the user perception inputs.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein: the user behavior inputs comprise one or more of: behavior expressions, head and body gestures, body motions, and speeches; and wherein training of the neural network model is performed in one or more of: the expressions, the motions, and the sequences based on the user behavior inputs.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein: applying of the trained neural network model comprises transferring user experiences determined based on at least one of the user perception inputs and user behavior inputs to the autonomous machine such that the autonomous machine behaves as the user.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein: the one or more sensors are coupled to one or more of: cameras hosted by at least one of the computing device and an integration system coupled to the computing device over a communication medium; wherein the integration system comprises an exoskeleton sensing sub-system and an expression capturing sub-system; wherein the computing device comprises the autonomous machine including one or more of: a robot, a self-driving vehicle, a self-flying vehicle, a self-floating vehicle, and a self-operating device; and wherein the communication medium comprises one or more of a cloud network, a proximity network, and the Internet.
 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising: facilitating the integration system by integrating the exoskeleton sensing sub-system with the expression capturing sub-system; and facilitating compatibility and communication between at least two or more of the computing device, the exoskeleton sensing sub-system, and the expression capturing sub-system.
 14. The method of claim 8, wherein: evaluating the one or more inputs comprises determining the one or more behavior traits of the user based on one or more environments, wherein an input relating to the user in a first environment is interpreted as a first behavior trait, wherein the input relating to the user in a second environment is interpreted as a second behavior trait that is distinct from the first behavior trait, and wherein training of the neural network model is based on relevance of the one or more environments.
 15. At least one non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions that, when executed on a computing device, implement or perform a method comprising: sensing, by one or more sensors, one or more inputs relating to a user; evaluating the one or more inputs to capture one or more behavior traits of the user; training a neural network model based on the one or more behavior traits; and applying, with the computing device, the trained neural network model to facilitate an autonomous machine to adopt the one or more behavior traits to behave as the user, including: generating a plurality of control commands to select from for the autonomous machine, calculating human expressions or actions for each of the generated plurality of control commands, evaluating the calculated human expressions or actions using the trained neural network model, selecting one of the plurality of control commands based on the evaluation of the calculated human expressions or actions and based on the one or more inputs, and providing the selected control command to the autonomous machine for execution.
 16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises: collecting the one or more inputs including at least one of user perception inputs and user behavior inputs; wherein the user perception inputs comprise one or more of: body positions, perception expressions, movements, sounds or voices, identifications, genders, and categories; and wherein training of the neural network model includes training in one or more of: expressions, motions, and sequences based on the user perception inputs.
 17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein: the user behavior inputs comprise one or more of: behavior expressions, head and body gestures, body motions, and speeches; and wherein training of the neural network model is performed in one or more of: the expressions, the motions, and the sequences based on the user behavior inputs.
 18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein: applying of the trained neural network model comprises transferring user experiences determined based on at least one of the user perception inputs and user behavior inputs to the autonomous machine such that the autonomous machine behaves as the user.
 19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein: the one or more sensors are coupled to one or more of: cameras hosted by at least one of the computing device and an integration system coupled to the computing device over a communication medium; wherein the integration system comprises an exoskeleton sensing sub-system and an expression capturing sub-system; wherein the computing device comprises the autonomous machine including one or more of a robot, a self-driving vehicle, a self-flying vehicle, a self-floating vehicle, and a self-operating device; and wherein the communication medium comprises one or more of a cloud network, a proximity network, and the Internet.
 20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises: facilitating the integration system by integrating the exoskeleton sensing sub-system with the expression capturing sub-system; and facilitating compatibility and communication between at least two or more of the computing device, the exoskeleton sensing sub-system, and the expression capturing sub-system. 